


Workaholic

by VarjacksonPaw



Series: Workaholic [1]
Category: Gamegrumps - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2020-10-06 22:11:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 42,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20514317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjacksonPaw/pseuds/VarjacksonPaw
Summary: How do you juggle school, being a Personal Assistant, and living your life? You don't. But maybe the Grumps can help me try before I lose my mind. A slow burn story of eventual romance. LARGE age gap. If you don't like that stuff, don't read!





	1. Chapter 1

I could never count myself as lucky. I as the type of person that applied for hundreds of scholarships and would never be awarded any of them. I could try out for thousands of contests online or in person and be skipped by one or two numbers. Heaven help me if I ever developed a gambling issue. That’s why it was such a shock to get the message. My Youtube channel had no icon, no posts, I rarely even commented or liked other people’s videos. I was awkward and antisocial, and only entered the drawing on a whim. 

_ Hey I’m Grump, and I’m Not So Grump! And you, won, the drawing! _

The opportunity was an all expenses paid, week long trip to visit the Game Grumps at their studio in California. I would be on their gaming channel, take part in the ten minute power hour, and get an exclusive behind the scenes tour of a Ninja Sex Party video. It sounded too good to be true. I thought it was a scam. I disregarded it for 24 hours before I took a closer look.

_ Please contact Scuze for the logistics at the following number: xxx-xxx-xxxx _

I sat down on the couch after getting back from school. Both of my roommates were still at work so I had some time to myself. I needed some kind of distraction to avoid the impending mountain of homework that was waiting for me in my bag. But first, pajamas! I was feeling Snorlax today. After throwing on the hood to try and hide my Fluff (read: hair) from the world, I settled in and pulled the message back up on my phone.

I suppose calling the number wouldn’t be...too terrible. It would help me verify if I was being scammed, and if I was I could always just avoid answering my phone for a couple days. I still refused to be hopeful. Things like this didn’t happen to me. It felt ...sketchy. Maybe that was just the day’s fourth cup of coffee ramping up my paranoia. Whatever. I picked up my phone to call “Scuze’s” number.

“Hello, Suzy here!” answered a chipper voice from the other end of the line. “Game Grumps headquarters, who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?”

I almost forgot to speak. I’m pretty sure I forgot how to breathe. “U-um yes hi? My name is Laura? I got a private message on Youtube telling me to call this number. Something about winning the Game Grumps raffle, contest, drawing...thing?” My god why was everything a questing in that statement. Where did my confidence go? Nice work Laura let the scammers know you have no clue what you’re doing. I proceeded to roll around on my bed in mental agony. 

“Oh! You’re Twisted Sister! I was waiting for your call! Normally people respond immediately, I was getting a little concerned the boys had picked a bot or something.” I paused in my rolling. This...no longer sounded like a scam. Was she making a jab at how long it took me to respond? Well shit now I felt bad. Sitting up, I decided to pay a little more attention to what she was saying before I missed something important. “Anyways, yeah! Congratulations on winning the drawing! I’ll be honest, the boys saw the name Twisted Sister and it kinda...made them biased I won’t lie. But yeah! We are all super excited to meet you Laura!”

“Great, great, can I just say I’m really glad this isn’t a scam? I really never win things like these, and I got the notification during class, and couldn’t check straight away-”

“Woah woah easy there, class? If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you? If you’re under 18 we need a parent’s permission to-” Suzy interrupted. Well shit. I didn’t like the concern in her tone. Unfortunately I started rambling in response to her question.

“I’m 22? I’m in college. Working on getting my Bachelors. It’s the voice isn’t it. I know I sound like a child on the phone, but you should see me in person. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is for me to buy a bottle of wine. If get carded one more time for seeing a rated R movie i’m going to scream.” I hoped she could tell that I was joking around. Mostly. And that she believed I was an actual legal adult. I started worrying one of my Snorlax ears with my fingers. The soft material was comforting. God I felt like a child in trying to convince her I wasn’t.

“Oh thank goodness, I don’t think any of us are qualified to watch children. Nor should we be. Just earlier I broke up an argument about whether skittles had actual different flavors on the inside. Needless to say, Danny might have actually killed Ross if I hadn’t stepped in.” The level of exasperation in her tone made me giggle. I felt like I could relax around this woman that I had only ever spoken to once and it was on the phone. She had an air of honesty around her that felt refreshing. People were allowed to be annoyed or angry. Fake personalities were exhausting.

“Well I’ll make sure to pack my ID, just in case.” I said between snickers. “And between you and me? The skittles flavoring is in the colors themselves. The insides are all the same. I don’t know if you should tell Danny or Ross though. They might get into an actual fist fight this time.”

“Oh man I can tell we are going to be great friends Laura.”


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the week went by in a blur to be honest. I spoke logistics with Suzy, drank some coffee, did homework, changed into normal clothes again to go to work, and repeated that process six more times. I really just run on coffee and intermittent existential crises to be honest. But my roommates couldn't tell so I am assuming the undereye bags and anxiety are normal. When I told them about the contest they were understandably...against it. I would be going alone, to another state, to meet strangers i had only seen online and spoken to on the phone. Quite frankly I felt pressured to stay because of them. But I had already made up my mind, and didn’t want to inconvenience the Grumps team by having them pay for tickets and I cancel last minute. 

I had to deal with a lot of silent treatment after that argument. It was terrible and I couldn’t really handle it. At all. I chose to work some overtime to try and hide from their disapproving stares. Besides the extra money would help me survive in California for a week. 

My coworkers all said it was good for me to go. That I needed to take a break. A vacation from everyone, including my roommates. A small part of me was offended at the amount of dislike that my housemates had garnered. I knew that they liked having control of situations. It was something that I had learned to live with. I had fun with them every day. And if there were some bad days in between, well, I'm sure I take out my frustrations on them as much as they do me.

There was a larger part of me though. One that I normally ignored that thinks otherwise. It whispers in my ear that the control is too much. That I was my own person and didn’t need their approval on every little thing. That I was young and free and capable of having a life outside of work and school. That part usually got me in trouble. It was why my phone would get checked every once in a while. Why I wasn’t allowed to have a snapchat or an instagram. Why I had to carefully phrase my messages to others so I could still speak to them. Why I never referred to anyone other than them as my friends.

I sat there in the breakroom with my hands in my hoodie and my AirPods in. I wanted to take a nap before I had to go back out there, but my mind kept repeating the same thing over and over. If only you didn’t have to work so hard. What are you doing it for? Who are you doing it for? Over and over until it drowned out my music, and my heartbeat, and my-

**Hey Laura it’s Suzy! Did you save my number in your phone?**

I jolted out of whatever mind cage I was trapped in. Grateful for the distraction. I spent a few seconds trying to remember who Suzy was, and why I needed to save her number. 

**Hey Suzy, of course I saved your number in my phone. Wait, was that creepy? I wasn’t going for creepy. Just like...efficient?**

I waited while internally kicking myself in the face. Yeah Laura pose the idea of being creepy to someone who is literally paying for you to meet them. Good plan. Great plan.

**Lol no not creepy at all. By the way everyone at the office is so excited to meet you! We...may have looked at your facebook page to verify that you weren’t a serial killer in disguise.**

Fuck what was on my Facebook again? I never really post anything anymore. I never have time. Or, really go anywhere.

**Danny said that if you don’t bring your Pikachu kigurumi to pajama night on Wednesday you two can’t be friends :P**

I paused. Re-reading the message. Fuck they saw my profile picture. Second, they laughed at my profile picture and now I want to die. Third, they say my profile picture, laughed, and demanded I bring said outfit with me?

**You there? Did we scare you with the facebook stalking?**

Shit how long was I internally disassociating again?

**I’m still here! Sorry Suzy, I'm at work and you know how managers are about phones lol**

**Do you want me to bring the Snorlax and hamster ones too lolol**

Fuck it, might as well go all in. I put my phone back in my pocket without waiting for a reply. I wasn’t sure my heart could take all of this excitement. I got up to go back out on the floor when I felt my pocket buzz.

**OMG Hey its Danny**

**Plz bring all Kigus on trip**

**Suzy taking phone baa;oigi;j**

**Fucking Danny stole my phone my bad. Bring whatever you want to wear that’s comfortable Kigurumis or not. I gotta go beat some sense into the boys. TTYL**

Um. I know it was entirely one sided, and I really didn’t respond but, did Danny from Game Grumps just message me about my choice in pajamas? I tried to school my face back flat, and if I didn’t succeed and refused to explain the goofy grin on my face the rest of my shift well...let’s just blame it on the caffeine.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey Suze, I’m on the plane now. We should be taking off any minute. I can’t believe you put me first class!**

Over the rest of the few weeks before my scheduled departure, I got to know Suzy, and by extension the Grumps, quite well. We hadn’t Skype called each other or anything, but little texts here and there really helped us open up. The boys would steal her phone from time to time and it was great to hear from them. Be it only for a few seconds until Suzy recovered her phone.

Danny would message me through her to ask me about mundane things. Favorite video games, if my favorite band was Twisted Sister. I told him I liked all games that had a decent story to them, and that Twisted Sister was my gateway drug to how I discovered NSP. He sent me back several emojis before Suzy sent him back to work. She seemed like a wonderful hybrid of mother and taskmaster that I could appreciate. Her husband, Arin, was a lucky man. And he knew it too. One time I sent Suzy a stuffed lamb that I had found online. I guess she showed it to Arin because I immediately received a response in all caps:

**OH MY GOD IF I SEND YOU MONEY I NEED YOU TO BUY THIS FOR SUZY**

**HOW MUCH IS IT I NEED IT FOR SUZY**

**I WILL GIVETHEMONY TO SUZY HOW MUCH OD YOU NEED!!!!!**

At this point I was dying in the middle of class and frantically clicking the link so I could find the price of this lamb for Arin so he would stop having a heart attack. After providing said information i received several thank yous in various forms of misspelling and a phone call from Suzy in which her laughter barely drowned out the sound of Arin screaming in excitement in the background. 

I leaned back in my overpriced plane seat, chuckling at the memory. They would have been great friends to have growing up. So eager to please one another when they found something related to hobbies and interests.The thought was sobering when compared to how I left my roommates this morning. I glanced down at the unread messages on my phone. Their angry white blocks on my lock screen vowing impending doom when I finally came back home. If I could go back home. I preferred not to think about it. It took a lot of will power and panic attacks in my room to disobey their wishes. I realized that’s what it was after Jared exploded one night.

I had been getting passive aggressive messages and phone calls all week about how i wasn’t ready to be left alone. That I was untrustworthy and would get up to trouble. He didn’t like how familiar I already was with everyone and wanted me to block them. When I told him no, is when he lost his temper.

“Why can’t you just fucking do as your told, keep your goddamn head down, and focus on work and school?!” There was a sickening silence after that. I tried not to cry. I had only come downstairs to get more coffee before retreated back into my room to do homework. Without a word i grabbed my shoes, wallet, and keys and walked out the front door. He tried to call me several times that day. Thankfully work allowed me to come in for a couple hours until I was too tired to keep a fake smile on my face. By the time I had returned home, everyone was asleep, and I had more notifications on my phone than I felt like dealing with. That was the day before I was set to leave. I had to drive myself to the airport.

The thought brought tears to my eyes and I tried to hold them in. Today was the day I got to meet the Game Grumps in person! One of the luckiest points in my life! I took time off for this, finished homework early for this, and here i am having a panic attack before the plane can even take off.

**OMG Laura we are so excited! I’ll be at the baggage claim when you lang ok? Have a safe flight, try not to do homework! Maybe play some minecraft? Watch a netflix movie?**

**Danny said there’s this super raunchy show called Outlander that you “have got” to try.**

**Arin said its straight smut so…**

**I guess if you like that stuff?**

**I might watch it later tbh ;P**

How it it one message can lift my spirits so high? I couldn’t wait to meet everyone. I opted to settle in and try to sleep. They never had good coffee on plane rides so I would have to deal with my exhaustion until I could hunt down a starbucks in California. Oh well. I closed my eyes to the sound of the flight attendants teaching people how to buckle their seat-belts. Snuggling further into my Hogwarts jacket, I turned up the music on my airpods and proceeded to drown out everything. Unless we were falling out of the sky no one had better wake me up or there would be hell to pay.


	4. Chapter 4

You know those scenes in films where the person is wandering around the airport and some random individual is holding a sign with their name on it? It’s designed for you to find your chauffeur in case there is a language barrier? At first I thought I was being extended the same courtesy when I finally spotted Susie. She wore a giant pair of black sunglasses, was covered in tattoos, and held a giant white sign in her hands. I wanted to be touched. Really. My heart was swelling with warm fuzzies as I walked closer. When I was within a few yards though my smile died on my face. 

_ Welcome back from prison Laura! We already hid all the needles in the house! _

“What.”

With that single word uttered once I was within earshot, Suzie proceeded to almost fall over laughing. I immediately asked which of the two’s idea it was to make the sign. She refused to rat them out. Pity. Now I have to generalize my revenge.

Prank aside, Suzy hugged me like we were old acquaintances. Which was strangely refreshing. I couldn’t remember the last time I received a real hug from my housemates. Even when I asked for one directly. I put the thought out of my mind. I was there to have fun and meet my idols! That was it! Idly I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I quickly whipped it out and let my roommates know I landed safely without reading what they had sent. 

“Everything good over there?” Suzy asked, oblivious to my, not necessarily inner turmoil, but I suppose negative musings.

“Oh yeah for sure! Just letting my people back home know I landed safely and wasn’t currently swimming with fishes.”

“Laura...you flew over land?” Suzy asked, confused and trying to hold in giggles.

“Land. Sharks. Don’t mess with the bit, i’ve already committed to it!” I replied with mock severity. Thankfully she saw the humor behind my eyes and finally broke down into more giggles. “Suzy! You’re revealing the method to my madness! How do I know Dan and Arin aren’t around the corner texting you to put me back on a plane because i’m not funny?! Next they’re going to put me on the same level as Ross and then what am I supposed to do??” At this point there’s tears streaming down Suzy’s face and she snorted a little in her efforts to calm down.

“Oh my god stop I told you I came alone! Those two idiots are recording a video right now. I think they’re on episode 70 of Toilet Princess. Who knows. What I do know is if I get back to another broken controller i'm scalping both of them. Starting with Dan. It’ll be more satisfying to watch.”

“My god Suzie, feed into my violent tendencies why don’t you? Sheesh. My inner Dahmer is tickled pink.” Suzie chuckled at that. After wiping her eyes she finally took a good look at me.

“Holy shit you were right. You do look super young!” Her surprise made me cringe a little. Was it the Harry Potter jacket? Or the super dramatic travel bags that looks like a 2 year old’s scrapbook drawer vomited all over everything. “You almost look so young, it’s obvious that you’re not!”

“Do you uh, need to see my ID after all? It’s the glasses isn’t it? See I told myself I shouldn’t wear the extra large pair, but then I was like naah the bigger the lenses, the cooler you’ll look you know? It’s a hipster thing. They’ll totally like me more if I have glass covering two thirds of my face.” I was rambling. She knew I was. But she let me get it all out. Suzy was cool like that. Apparently Arin has ADD so she was used to the hyperactive behavior. I’d go get myself checked out but… I was poor. And rent was due that week. 

When I was finished talking and receded into myself, Suzy chose to speak up. “Laura, I had to get your ID to book your ticket remember? I already knew what you looked like. We also stalked you on Facebook from day one. But anyways, let’s quit attracting attention and get you boarded up for the night okay?” Suzy finished up while wrapping her arm around my shoulder. “Are you hungry?”

“Honestly?” I replied while shouldering my bags. “I could really use some Starbucks. Airplane coffee is fucking vile.” That got Suzie laughing again. “What? I need caffeine. It’s not like i’ll be sleeping anytime soon anyways.”

“Laura it’s like...midnight in Texas. How are you not tired?” 

“I normally work overnight on Sundays. So i’ll take a nap for 3 hours when I get home and then get ready for the overnight job.” I was super casual about it because I was used to it. Apparently that was the wrong answer.

“Wait aren’t you in class three days a week?”

“Yeah?’

“How do you have time to sleep?” Suzy was incredulous and staring at me over her sunglasses.

“I normally don’t. I’ll take naps but my diet consists of processed foods and various forms of caffeine. I usually just go until I can’t anymore. My housemates will make sure I get up on time for work though so it’s usually ok.”

“Why don’t they let you sleep in if you’re crashing that hard? And when was the last time you drank some water!” It took Suzie a second to notice how uncomfortable I was. “You know what? Its late. I don’t even think Starbucks is open right now. Let’s get you checked into your hotel, go over your day tomorrow, and there should be some kind of coffee machine in your hotel room okay?”

“Thanks Suze.I’m really excited, I swear, I just don’t think I’m ready to delve into all of that right now.”

“Of course! Let’s go! My Mini is outside. It’s actually awesome that we’re leaving now. I don’t want the fangirls to start appearing out of nowhere.”


	5. Chapter 5

Suzie wanted me to sleep in today. “Technically this is a vacation which means you shouldn’t have to get up early. You’re too young to waste your vacation time!” An argument that I vehemently refused. Why on earth would I waste half of my day sleeping when I won a trip to visit my idols? We finally agreed that Suzie would pick me up from the hotel lobby at ten the following day. With that, and a threat if I didn’t make sure to eat breakfast with my first of many cups of morning coffee, she left to check on her boys and head home to sleep.

I remember falling on the large bed and suddenly missing my room in Texas. No one but me would go in there and it was a warm, dark, cave like place. Which admittedly sounds really unappealing, but when you spend most of your waking moments studying, going to school, or working. You learn to appreciate your own designated space - cave. Even when I had down time, I was never really able to go to my room without being questioned or accused of doing something “sneaky.” Constantly remaining in the presence of someone and never left to your own devices leaves you on edge more often than not. You’re stuck wondering if it _ is _ a good idea to be left on your own.

I drifted away to thoughts like these. Missing and also Not-missing home. Wondering what tomorrow would be like. And where the fuck I was going to get a decent dose of caffeine.

I woke up the next day to my alarm going off. Nothing like Erasure’s Always to put a smile on your face. It reminded me of my Amazon Echo at home and I was instantly reminded of where I was and why. 

“Holy shit what the fuck am I supposed to wear to this fucking thing?!” I could feel the panic setting in.

**SUZY**

No reply. I started scrambling to my travel bags, throwing the key-chains and stuffed dragon ball out of the way. I had to experience the torture of indecisiveness for ten minutes before she called me.

“Hey kid what’s up?” Her nonchalance over the phone was a direct contrast to my hyperactive panic.

“Suzy, pardon my french, but what the fuck do I wear to this kind of shit?” That prompted her laughter, and I heard her move to another room and close the door. 

“Ok I have to ask a couple questions first.” She began. “Do you have a crush on anyone there?”

“What? No? I look up to them? Except Borf…”

“What.” Suzie’s deadpan immediate response made the joke worth it.

“I’m joking! He’s too much of a daddy’s boy.” That prompted a genuine laugh that seemed to echo through the phone. “But in all seriousness, no i don’t have a crush on anyone there except that wall of Amiibos. Maybe Dan’s hair when he straightened it for a ten minute power hour.”

“Dude how do you remember all these little details that we only mentioned once or twice!? You know what? I’ve decided that it’s just a quirk Now that I know you don’t have a crush on anyone, I can safely say you can wear regular underwear! See that’s one layer of clothing down!” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I sat down on my bed and perused my undergarment pocket. I had only packed cute underwear to be honest. Half the time I avoided wearing underwear unless it was during “that” time of the month. But she didn’t need to know that. With my limited need for panties in general, I tended to splurge. 

“Let’s see. Go with something blue.” Decided Suzy.

“Why blue?” I asked. Confused but also pulling the sky blue set out of my bag.

“Well it’s Dan’s favorite color! I would tell you Arin’s but he’s already taken so there’s really no point in trying that hard.” Suzy said. I could hear the humor in her voice. She could probably tell I was having a mental aneurysm on the other end of the line.

“Suzy! Why the hell do I need to wear underwear that caters to Dan’s tastes? I don’t plan on flashing anyone! This is a meet and greet not a meet and fuck! Also i’m practically child sized. No one’s going to want any of this until I don’t look like jailbait.” That last was said as more of a bitter joke, but I hoped that Suzy hadn’t noticed it.

She did. I could tell in her voice. But she mercifully chose not to bring up the subject any further. “Nonsense! You’re adorable! Consider it more of a...backup! In case shit hits the fan you can blind them with a sexy thong and run out the back door!” That made me laugh. I could see it now, I accidentally mess up somehow with my words and immediately pull my pants down, stunning them long enough for me to escape! Like a hidden Pokemon move no one talks about because it was censored for the United States. Stupid censorship. But how did she know I had picked a thong?! Must have been a Suzy quirk.

“Ok well I think we have the underwear covered Suzy, what about the rest of me? I wasn’t planning to bust out a Kigu until movie night!”

“ _ Suzyyyyy why have you been in the bathroom for so long? Are you broken? Do you need lady thiiings?  _ No hon! I was making some last minute adjustments with Laura before she headed over here! Thanks though! Gosh Dan is such a sweetheart.” She sighed, addressing me again. “Did you pack band shirts like I suggested? And skinny jeans?”

“Yeah that’s like...most of my wardrobe. Plus minus the hoodies.” I responded. Already searching for my skinniest jeans and pulling out my violet converse. I contemplated for a moment and put them back in my shoe bag. Instead I grabbed the grey reflective high tops. God these shoes were beautiful. One of my most prized possessions, and the cheapest shoes in my collection.

“You are the only person I know who uses math terms in general conversations. I really think your major is a great fit for you regardless of how much you hate it.” Suzy sounded falsely exasperated which made me smile. “Anyways, we are all super casual here so just dress like you’re going to class and maybe bring a jacket. The office can get cold sometimes since Dan has the ‘thing’ you know? We want everyone to feel comfortable here. Well I gotta get going so I can finish setting up your transportation, but I'll see you when you get here ok? You’ve got one hour before you need to be down in the lobby, and I swear you better have eaten or i will personally shove a bagel down your throat. Dry.”

“First of all, ew? Who eats bagels dry. And secondly, I thought you were picking me up? Who’s picking me up? Can I eat in the car?” I was more than a little confused. It was bad enough that I was in a hotel relying on people I barely knew to provide transportation, but now my safety was put in the hands of a stranger? Yikes. Queue panic mode.

“Relax, he works with us too! Super trustworthy guy. Just doesn’t talk all that much. It’s a surprise okay? I promise you’ll love it. I just want to give you the ultimate Grump experience!    
And yes you can eat in the car, just no crumbs ok?

“Fine. I don’t like it but fine. I only have one last question. Can we stop by Starbucks?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

“Shut the fuck up. Brian? Like, Ninja Brian?” I stared dumbstruck at the couch currently occupied by The Ninja Brian sans mask. He still carried the stoic expression, but I could see the entertainment in his eyes. “Holy shit.” No response. “You really don’t talk do you?” Still silence. This time with a raised eyebrow. “Ok well, I hope you’re ok with me rambling. I’m kinda incapable of shutting up. But like I can’t believe it’s you! Suzy said my person wouldn’t talk much but I never expected she meant like, Ninja Brian levels of not talking much,” I kept talking as I pulled out a togo bag with cookies in it. Suzy said I had to eat, she just didn’t specify what i needed to be eating. I took advantage of the loophole, “you have no idea how much I wanted to meet you!”

I paused so I could bite a cookie and adjust the, currently empty, venti coffee cup in my arms. I could see Brian brace himself for the onslaught of fan questions that he would no doubt answer by staring silently until the tirade ended. “Why don’t we continue this conversation in the car? I don’t want Suzy getting mad because I held us up from talking so much.” 

Brian shrugged and started making his way to the exit. I took that as my queue to follow.

When we were finally settled in the car, and I had ingested four more cookies, I tried speaking again. “Mr. Brian, um Ninja, Sir.” I began, already feeling like an idiot. “I just wanted you to know that I am really grateful to meet you and I was wondering if, and I know you don’t talk, but I wanted to know if maybe,” shit he was starting to look impatient. It was in his eyes. I could tell, “you could tell me about your life before NSP?”

That caught him by surprise. He glanced over at me with both eyes raised. Almost as if to ask if he had heard me correctly. I figured I would have to pretend he was responding with words otherwise the conversation would be a lot more one-sided than I would have liked. 

“Well you see, i’m a Math major, and I used to be a Physics major, and I know that you used to be a professor in theoretical physics, but no one really ever mentions how that was or if you even liked what you did, or what you studied.” It felt like I was rambling again, so I paused and gave Brian time to process. When I finally looked up from my lap I saw an actual. Smile. A real smile on The Ninja Brian’s face! Had I died and just not noticed?

“No one, and I literally mean no one, has ever asked me about my career before Ninja Sex Party,” began Brian. Holy fucking shit he speaks! He spoke to me! My brain broke down for a second. What the fuck? Apparently I said that last part out loud seeing as Brian started laughing. “I suppose I could break character this one time. I suppose it’s a special occasion. Let’s get you that Starbucks and we can talk a little more?” 

I looked out the window to see that we were indeed parked outside of Starbucks. I hadn’t noticed while I was in shock that we are already almost to the Grumps headquarters. “Fuck. Yes! Lets go, I need more caffeine. My third cup is already wearing off.” I was already leaving the car and opening my Starbucks app before Brian unbuckled his seatbelt. “Come on Brian! I wish you had told me we are stopping here, it would be pre-ordered and ready by the time we pulled up!” If Brian had burst out laughing whilst I sped walked into the building, I pretended not to notice. Coffee brings out a different kind of confidence I suppose.

“...and the Proton said, ‘I’m positive!’” I snickered, as we pulled into the parking space. Brian was outright laughing his ass off at this point. Another win for me. I logged the instance in my brain for review later. We had a really great conversation while waiting for my coffee. He told me about how he studied theoretical particle physics and the relationship between valence electrons, electron clouds, and how the manipulation of the two could alter the properties of atoms. Really interesting stuff. It also prompted a battle of science jokes, which I am proud to admit, I won!

“What the fuck Laura that was the cheesiest joke ever! How much caffeine did you have in your system when you came up with that one?” 

“Excuse you professor, not even Stephen Hawking could quantify that if you gave him a T-5000.”

“That’s a Terminator model Jesus Christ!” Brian started guffawing as we walked in the door. And that’s how we stunned the whole entire office into silence.

“I’m sorry, Ninja Brian. Are you  _ laughing _ ? You broke character!? Laura, I wanted you to meet him, not break him!” Suzy was incredulous as she stood by the door. The rest of the group stared at me with wide eyes.

“Hey, you introduced a Math addict, to an ex-physicist. What the fuck did you expect would happen?!” At this point, Brian had calmed down enough to speak again.

“Guys relax! And pick your jaws up off the floor please? I will stab all of you, and I’d rather not ruin the kid’s image of me right after I promised to help her with her homework later.”

“...YOU DID WHAT?!!”

“Oh! Hey Danny, Arin, this is Laura. She won the Grump contest. Laura this is Danny, Arin, Ross, and the rest of the Grump company. And of course you know Suzy already.” Brian headed over to one of the many bean bag chairs scattered around the room. “You guys make it seem like the world is ending. I talk all the time! Laura come sit down, take a load off, drink your coffee!”

“What the fuck just happened?” Asked Suzy. “Laura what did you do to Brian?”

“I only asked him about school stuff...and physics stuff...ok and murdery stuff but only a little of that last one. I didn’t want to trigger him while he was behind the wheel of a car.” I walked over to the fuzzy bean bag chair next to Brian’s. “Suzy, what's wrong with Dan and Arin? They keep staring.” There was nothing like fresh Starbucks in the morning and several chocolate chip cookies to fuel a confidence boost. Internally though, I was screaming. I had attracted waaay too much attention. I think Brian could tell.

“Hello, earth to Megatron? We have company and you all are just staring at her!”

Danny was the first to snap out of it. “Shit. Fuck. Sorry. Come on Brian you have to admit, you talking to new people doesn’t really happen as fast as today. Um, Hi. I’m Danny, as you must already know, i’m the lead singer of Ninja Sex Party, and sitting next to you is Ninja Brian. Who has now declared you as a rival for best friend…” Danny got an eye roll at that last comment.

“Wow,” I began, “can I ask a question before we continue?” Danny nodded and started walking towards me. “Um, what are you doing?” 

“Well I figured you wanted to touch my hair. It’s the first question everyone asks me.”

“Uh no?” I said, appalled. “That’s just rude? Oils are so bad for your hair texture why would I do that?” He looked at me quizzically and veered off to my left to sit on the couch facing me. 

“Ok, shoot then. Guys, come sit down before you intimidate the poor thing. Are you hungry?”

“No thanks, I already ate some cookies on the way.” Suzy gave a growl of disapproval that insured I was going to get an earful about this later. “What!? It counts! Anyways, I wanted to know which you liked more. Old or new Skittles “ I asked while reaching in to my Kingdom Hearts backpack. God I loved how big it was. I could fit a whole decapitated head in there. Much to Brian’s delight. I pulled out a bag of each type and presented them to Danny.

“Dude what the fuck?” Arin exclaimed.” She already knows how to bribe us!?” Everyone laughed out loud at that. Danny’s eyes lit up and he looked at me with an unreadable mix of respect, awe, and something else.

“Shit um, what a loaded question.”

“Good thing I brought both kinds then. You can have them. There's more in my room at the hotel.” I was completely nonchalant as I handed over both extra large bags of Skittles to the fluffy haired man. Danny accepted them almost reverently and sat them to the side. “Thanks Laura! I’d eat them now but...I’m sure you don’t want to see me gorge myself on candy this early...in the…” He trailed off as I pulled a Mexican mango lollipop out my bag and proceeded to stick it in my mouth. What can I say? There’s never a bad time for a dose of Sucrose.

“Laura! When I said eat, I meant real fucking food you candy whore!” Suzy practically screeched. It prompted Arin to pat her shoulder distractedly before wandering over to sit next to Dan. “I’m making toast and you’re eating three slilces, no arguments!”

“Fiiine Mom! Sheesh not my fault you left a loophole.” I muttered before turning my attention to Arin who tried to hide his curiosity. “Hi Arin.” I smiled.

“Uh, hey. I’m Arin, which we’ve established. I’m kinda in charge around here? But let’s admit it, we all know who the real boss is. Welcome to the office, and congratulations on winning the favor of both members of NSP” he finished with a chuckle.

“Don’t worry, I brought you a present too. I bet you already have these but, I found some Amiibos that I figured you could add to your wall.” I pulled out a mini bag from the main pocket.

“OH MY GOD IS THAT A MEGA YARN YOSHI?” Arin screamed peeking in the top of the bag. He immediately started bouncing in his seat. “These shits are so expensive! Laura! What?!” Brian and Arin started laughing at his antics, thoroughly entertained by the grown man fangirling over figurines.

“Ok but open the bag? There’s more than one in there.” I said laughing.

“Lauraaaa holy shit you didn’t hav-IS THAT A DUAL CANNON SAMUS WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID YOU GET THIS!?!?!” Arin looked like he was about to fall over. Even Brian was concerned underneath the laughter. I suppose no one wanted Arin to fall over. Which he looked like he was about to do. At least he was still sitting down. “Laura. This shit is so expensive! You didn’t have to!”

I shrugged. “Meh. So many people get you presents that look cool, yeah, but I wanted to give you something that catered to both of your likes. I already gave Ninja Brian his present in the car.” I gestured to the face mask Brian had put on. It only covered his mouth and had a shuriken with vector lines emitting from it. “I figured I’d give everyone else their presents throughout the week. There’s only so much I can fit in my bag, unfortunately. Do you like them?”

I expected a high five, maybe some words of gratitude. I wasn’t prepared for Arin to rush over, and leaving his bag with Danny, and pull me into a hug. He kept chanting Thank yous over and over as he spun me around until Suzy walked in inquiring about all the commotion. The rest of the team laughed as Arin babbled about the toys and I settled back into my seat. I got a head pat from Brian as I settled in and a fist bump from Dan too. 

“Well shit guys I think Laura out did us with first impressions. Good thing we have a whole week to make it up to her!” Exclaimed Danny raising his hands in defeat. I laughed excited for the day’s events. Danny looked over at me, there was respect and a twinkle of playfulness in his brown eyes.

“I dunno guys, I’m pretty tough to please,” I said, taking a sip out of my Starbucks cup, “think you can handle it?” I asked, making eye contact. 

Danny smirked. 

“Challenge accepted.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The rest of that day went by in a blur. I got a tour of the whole Grump space, was introduced to all of the employees, and even had the honor of choosing where Arin’s new Amiibos would go on the wall. I picked the top center but had to get Danny to put them up since I was so short. Arin stroller around happily, rattling nonstop about the inspiration for the design of everything, his plans for the company, and even delved into some of his earlier animation projects after I mentioned his involvement with Axecop. 

Danny stayed next to me, mentioning little details that Arin forgot to cover. He seemed to read my mind whenever I had questions. More than happy to let Arin take the lead. His laid back personality made the tour less overwhelming. That, and the fact that Ninja Brian was behind me. I think I was adopted some time between Starbucks and pulling up to the Grump space. I didn’t mind though. Brian was cool. Even when he wasn’t talking. 

Suzy finally managed to grapple me into eating real food around lunch time, and I surprised everyone by eating a whole Chipotle burrito in one sitting. She said it was because I forgot to eat a lot. She might be right. But I’ll never admit it. Ninja Brian did make sure to grab some cookies when I wasn’t looking. Every time Suzy would leave the room he’d sneak me one with a secret smile. When Dan caught us he started sneaking me Skittles too. I told him I was honored that he shared his candy with me, but both of them were going to give me three more cavities than I came to California with.

“No worries, me and Brian can pick up the bill for your fillings.” Danny replied, shoving a handful of Skittles into his own mouth. We were taking a break while Arin prepped the Grump room for a recording. We all agreed that I would watch him and Danny record a video before I took part in production. “So what should we play Laura? Your pick since you’re the guest of honor.”

“Well shit guys I wasn’t ready! You have like...every game known to man in here!” I took a look at both walls of games and systems. “I’m pretty sure you need to make a living document with a list of all your titles so it's easier to keep track of what you own.” I paused, wiping the metaphorical drool from my face at the shelf dedicated to nothing but Kingdom Hearts games. “Have y’all actually played Re:Chain of Memories for the PS2?”

“Um no I don’t think we have.” Replied Arin, who was emerging from the production studio. “Dan and I kinda stopped trying to record Kingdom Hearts because of how long the series would get.”

“Yeah I remember you two talking about it during Toilet Princess. Something about you’d rather stream it than record it episodically? I remember you kept falling down the stairs in your puppy form, and somehow the topic came up.” I could see the surprise on Danny and Arin’s faces. “What? I have a thing for remembering quirky details. Ask Suzy, she’s given up on trying to understand how my brain works. Anyways, if you feel like raging for 15 minutes straight, you should try Re: CoM. The battle system leaves...a lot to be desired. That, and because everyone knows just how long Kingdom Hearts plots are, i’m pretty sure you could get away with only posting one or two videos of some boss battles.” I sat back down on my chosen bean bag, Brian settling next to me on his, a little keyboard in his lap. I guess he had his own stuff to work on. 

“Hey that’s not a bad idea. What do you think El Presidente?” Danny asked, referring to Arin who was leaning against the doorframe with a quizzical look on his face. 

“I mean think about it guys, imagine how big your fanbase would grow if you broached the massive fandom that is Kingdom Hearts? And Danny you love Disney shit,” I began, pulling out the pin I was waiting to give to him, “I for one believe in double dipping into as many fandoms as I can in one sitting.” I finished, handing him the blue Gene pin. “That’s for you by the way. I got it in Disney a while back and its been hiding in my pin basket for long enough.”

Danny accepted the pin with a grin and slid it into his pocket. “I mean, i’m down, what about you Dan? Cool with watching me scream at a tv for a little bit?”

“Sure man, let me grab a couple bottles of water first though. Brian, Laura do you two wanna hang out in the Grump room or what?”

Brian looked at me with a silent question. No wonder he didn’t need to speak. His eyebrows spoke volumes. I told him as such earned myself another head pat. Danny shook his head at the display. “I swear i’m getting replaced.”

“Of course not Dan! I don’t think I could rock the sequined leotard nearly as well as you. And my pelvic thrusting leaves much to be desired. Also I still don’t see how you can keep a straight face while singing about heart boners. Side note, who did the animation for that song? It was so cool!”

Suzy came out and surveyed the scene in front of her with fondness. She and I made eye contact over Ninja Brian’s head as he, Danny, and Arin discussed a Starbomb topic. 

“Are you having fun?” She mouthed. I nodded with a smile and turned my attention back to the boys.

“Ok, I don’t think I could laugh quietly enough to be in the room, so I’m cool with watching from the production room. Is that ok Ninja Brian?” I asked looking back at him. I got a nod and another head pat in response. “You just think my hair is fluffy don’t you.” Another nod and a more aggressive head pat. “Hey! I brushed that this morning! You’re gonna give me knooots.” I whined. Everyone in the room laughed at me as Brian and I stood up and made our way to the production room. Brian shoved the last of the cookies into my hands as we walked through the doorway. Cavities. I swear.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

“So let me get this straight. You work two jobs, one of which is overnight full time, and you’re a full time student? When do you sleep?!” Arin exclaimed from his side of the table. Suzy must have kicked him under the table because the last half of his statement came out several levels quieter than when he began.

We went out to a Thai place down the street for dinner after recording. Sure enough, Arin was screaming by the first boss. “Who the fuck uses cards to attack!?! What is this complete Bullshit?!” I found myself crying with laughter, doubled over as Brian patted my back out of concern.

“When I can.” I mumbled around another fork full of pasta. “That’s why I eat a lot of candy and drink several cups of coffee more than should be humanly possible for a being of my size. Without it, i would just...kinda...die? I dunno.” Brian tried to sneak my cup away from my arm until I whacked him with my napkin. 

“Well you must make bank then! Why haven’t we seen you at any of our events in Houston? I’m sure you could afford them which how much you make.”

“My parents don’t really...support me at all to be honest? We had a serious falling out a few years back. Now I don’t speak to any of them. Not even my siblings. So now I have to pay for rent, my car, and whatever scholarships from school don’t cover. That shit stacks up.” I spoke nonchalantly about the whole thing, and I think everyone was surprised with the lack of inflection in my tone. As time passed, I realized I didn’t have time to focus on the emotional aspect of what happened to me. Sure I had flare ups here and there, but, I couldn’t afford to dwell on the situation more than acknowledging it. 

Suzy looked like she wanted to leap over the table and hug me, and Arin looked angry. I would say that Brian looked murderous, but that tended to be his natural state so I couldn’t tell if my words had affected him or not. I looked to my left to see Danny typing something rapidly on his phone. Seconds later Arin’s phone chimed and he glanced at it before up at Danny across from him. Then he leaned over and showed the message to Suzy who started nodding after a few seconds.

“Well, guys this has been fun,” Suzy began, completely disregarding the exchange,, “but I think its time for all of us to hit the hay for today. I know Laura’s been up for a while and needs her beauty sleep since she’s going to be on camera tomorrow.” She called the waiter over to get the check and refused to accept my card when I went to pay for my part of the meal. “You’re our guest!”

Later on that night I got a text message from Brian. I saved him on my phone as the Ninja emoji with a cookie next to it which seemed fitting. I flopped in my bed and paused Netflix, outright avoiding the mountains of homework I knew loomed over me.

**Kid.**

**Hey Brian, what’s up?**

**Did you have fun today?**

**Yeah! Everyone was really nice! Like one big family, even if one of the members doesn’t talk all that much :P**

**Yeah yeah make fun of the mute.**

**You’re not naturally mute though!**

**Don’t make fun of my life choices!**

**You do it for the bit Ninja Brian! Anyways. Are you bored? Is that why you’re messaging me so late?**

**No....I just wanted to check in. We all had a lot of fun today, and I figured someone should at least make sure you didn’t think we hated you or something…**

**Oh thank god. ** I was actually being serious here as I flipped away from my laptop.  **I really hoped so. I was on my best behavior, and limited my innuendos to the absolute minimum.**

**Laura. NSP was founded on innuendos? Be yourself!**

**Well yeah, but like...Remember when Danny and Arin had that period where they had to figure out the limits of what was okay to joke about? I only have six days left.**

**Yeah, but we want to get to know the real you, not the fake one you probably use at work…**

**Ow Brian.**

**Ow.**

**Rude**

**Yeah yeah kid, I know your skin is tougher than that. ;P**

**Anyways, i’m tired as shit and we have things to do in the morning. Go to sleep.**

**Yeah, yeah. After this episode Peralta and the Captain went into the witness protection program!**

**Laura...I will stab the television. I make enough money to replace it.**

**Fine! Fine. Sleeping. Night Ninja Brian!**

**Night Kid.**


	9. Chapter 9

Today I wore an oversized Twisted Sister band shirt, some leggings, and my silver reflective high tops. I figured if I was going to be sitting for extended periods of time, I might as well be comfortable while doing it. As I walked past the giant mirror in the bathroom, I made sure to pull the shirt down as far as possible. My ass had a tendency to show off when I least wanted it to, and I would rather that not happen while I was at the Grump Space.

**Laura are you done yet? Your ride is downstairs!**

**Good morning to you too Suzy! ** I replied while packing my Kingdom Hearts bag for the day. I wasn’t nearly finished bringing everyone their presents but could only hold so much in there.  **And it’s just Brian. He’s probably just glaring at people in the lobby. Do I have time for more Starbucks today?**

**Who said Brian was picking you up today? Wouldn’t he have just texted you himself?**

**Well shit. I guess I better hurry my ass up then. Sorry about missing breakfast. Do you know how hard it is to deal with my mass of fluff in the morning?**

**Yeah I think the only one that can relate is Dan tbh. Also it’s fine, i’ll just bring you a plate from my house!**

**Which you will eat**

**Or I will fight you**

**Cute stature or not**

**There will be blood**

**Fuck Suzy. Just….Wow.**

**Love you too kid! See you soon.**

I headed back downstairs to the lobby of the hotel, keeping my eyes peeled for who was supposed to pick me up. Unfortunately for my accident prone body, paying attention to my surroundings more than my feet resulted in a wonderful stumble out of the elevator. And by wonderful I mean please shoot me now there’s like 20 people in this fucking lobby and if I didn’t look like a hot mess before I certainly did now. 

“Woah!” Someone caught me right before my face could eat overly polished tile. “When Suzy said you were kinda clumsy, I didn’t think this was what she meant!”

“Ross? You’re here to pick me up today? And I just fell over like a dumbass right in front of you. Grand. Just….fucking amazing.” I sighed in defeat. Standing up on my own, I patted myself down and reached up to make sure I didn’t look like an abstract artist’s version of Albert Einstein. 

“Nah you should see Danny. He’s all thumbs and swear words in the morning. And lord help us all if I interrupt him one more time. Pretty sure the wife wouldn’t be able to find all the pieces.”

I snickered because he was probably right. 

“Hey Ross?” I was trying to juggle digging around in my backpack while cradling my liquid nectar of the gods in my lap. We had just left Starbucks (without me having to ask!) and were on our way to the Grump Space. 

“Yeah?” He responded while driving. I had never really noticed before but he had literally no accent. Who would’ve thought, a full Irishman, who lived in Australia for most of his life, spoke like he was born in the United States. Weird. Also not what I wanted to discuss at the time.

“Well you see, I kinda made it my point to get everyone personalized gifts and I gave Danny part of his yesterday, and I’m sure you heard Arin freaking out too. So I just wanted to know if it was ok to give you part of your present now, and save the other one for when we were around Danny and Arin?” I wasn’t nervous. If he wanted all of his gifts without the pomp and circumstance I could do that! I just think part of the humor would have been lost. Thankfully he picked up on that.

“Yeah dude that’s totally fine! Geez how many presents did you get everybody? What do you have planned for Christmas then?” He asked, laughing as he kept his eyes on the road. California traffic was a bitch so that was pretty understandable.

“Well I dunno ok?! I shop when I'm happy! Or stressed. Or excited. Shut up. Anyways, here.” I threw the dolly into his lap and saw his brows furrowed in confusion. “I know you can drive with one wheel just pick it up before it falls on the floor!” I had to admit I was the most excited for this out of the three presents I had planned for him. It required a little work on my part because of how it was custom designed for him. I suppose I should have waited until he wasn’t driving to give it his full attention.

Ross looked down into his lap at a red light. I could see his forehead crinkle even further in confusion.

“Why did you get me a Justin Bieber plushie?”

“Look a liiiitle closer. Preferably after we park. I don’t want to die.”

Once we got past the red light, it was another ten minutes until we pulled up to the grump space. Before we had the chance to get out of the car, Ross picked up the doll and gave it a closer inspection. I could see understanding dawn on his face as he took in the whole picture.

“Laura. Is this supposed to be me? In a Mario Maker outfit?” I nodded excitedly and could see the happiness on his face.

“Yeah! I remember when Arin mentioned that your icon on the Grumps wall looked like Justin Bieber so I thought it would be cute to make a little doll that wore the Mario Maker outfit since that’s what you’ve been up to lately. Do you like it?”

“Laura this is really fucking cool! Most of the time people send me boomerangs and things from Ireland. Normally I don't really mind all that much but it’s nice to see a change in genre. And like that Justin Bieber reference is so obscure! From some random Mario Maker episode!”

I nodded in understanding. He hadn’t realized my knack for memorizing random details yet after seeing them once or twice. “It’s a quirk Ross. Remembering nonsensical bullshit is a superpower. One I accept with great humility.” I tried to keep as straight of a face as possible, but I could tell he knew I was bullshitting as I stumbled out of the car. “Fuck. Stupid car frames. Why don’t they design these for tiny people?! Speaking of cars,” I began, reaching into my back one more time before leaning away from the car, “I got this for you too. Don’t lose it, it’s tiny.” I threw the object at him before making my way up the stairs.


	10. Chapter 10

“AHAHAHA a Muzzle! She got Ross a muzzle! Dan, Dan come here holy shit I love her. Daniel! COME HERE.” Arin was currently writhing in a swivel chair while Ross lay face down on one of the office desks. 

“See Ross? And this is why I asked if you wanted your personal presents in the car beforehand. Aren’t you glad I didn’t lead with the muzzle?” I stated matter of factly from the desk I was sitting on. Not without permission from Suzy of course. I just didn’t like being the shortest person in the room and tended to pick high places to perch from.

It was more of a Ball gag number. Black leather, silver hardware, and a deep red ball in the center. I figured a standard animal muzzle would be too degrading, but seeing as there were an immeasureable number of gay jokes that took place in the office every day, a Ball gag would be more fitting.

“Of course I have the larger strap sizes back in my hotel room in case you try it on and discover its too tight. Let me tell you, it was hard to get that thing by the way.”

“How so?” Ross asked, still muffled by his arms as he continued to hide his embarrassment. 

**“** Well, considering the fact that I look like a prepubescent child most of the time, I got carded, carded, and extra carded, in the 20 minutes I spent in the store. Lord help me if I ever delve deeper into the kinky side of life. I’d never get anything done.”

“What’s this I hear about kinky?” Danny asked from right behind me. I guess he had rolled over from where he and Brian were discussing NSP content. “I mean first muzzles, now fetishes, i’m down, but more than a little confused. Also, nice Twisted Sister shirt dude. Really works with the outfit.” I had to say, for someone as awkward as he, the fact that he could sneak up on a person really astounded me. How long was he back there? Who fucking knows. And they call Brian the Ninja.

“Dan, Laura gave Ross a muzzle as a personalized gift-” Arin began before Ross, of course, interrupted.

“Can’t we focus on the other things she got me?! The adorable Mario Maker plushie? The-the green car with the record-”

“And it’s actually a Ball gag! How fucking amazing is that?!?” Arin interrupted showing Danny the device hanging from his fingers.

Danny leaned around me to get a better look, and stuck his hand out next to my leg to grab it from the Grump. Apparently personal space was not a thing here. I didn’t really mind, but I was surprised at how quickly Danny and Arin were comfortable with me. 

“Wow Laura, Lelo? Now that’s some expensive shit right there. Normally we just reuse our Lelo props for NSP videos.” I wanted to say that I was surprised that he knew about the adult toy brand but, Danny Sexbang should be more than well versed in the topic. I nodded anyways.

“Only the best for the resident chatterbox. I mean come on Danny,” I began turning halfway to face him, “you of all people should appreciate an opportunity to speak without being interrupted every ten seconds. Oh and thank you for the compliment by the way. I figured the channel name would make more sense if I wore the inspiration during recording. Do you know how hard it is to find the right shade of silver that matches reflective 3M material? Shit is expensive in and of itself.” Up close I could see more details of Danny’s face. His stubble was getting a little long and there were bags unders his eyes. I wondered how late the Grumps had stayed up recording. Or maybe he had a new idea for a song? I wanted to ask but figured now wasn’t the best time. There were way more jokes to be had at Ross’s expense.

“Speaking of recording,” Suzy threw in, effectively silencing Arin with a smack to the back of the head, “we should probably get started in case we need to do several takes. I take it this is your first time on camera Laura?”

I shrugged. “No not really, i’ve done it before but not in a professional setting. But that was years ago. I’m probably out of practice. And there’s no script this time. Meh. I’m sure it’ll be great. Also I can literally see the questions popping out of your eyes Arin, no I will not be telling you what I did on camera. Be content knowing I never was, nor will I ever be a pornstar. I don’t have time for it.”

That last part made Danny laugh, reminding me that he was still right there, sitting at the desk I had chosen for myself. At least he radiated heat so I wasn’t suffering too badly. Tight leggings and an oversized t-shirt really does nothing in regards to keeping a person warm.

“Ross are you still alive?” Suzy asked. “Do you wanna do the 10 minute power hour or continue to hide your shame. We can even leave the ball gag out here if it makes you feel better.” That prompted another round of laughter.

Ross groaned and looked up from where he was playing with the green car I got him. “I think I’ll sit this one out guys. I have some editing to do for Dream Daddy that I really need to finish. But you three have fun ok?”

We all nodded and headed over to the recording room. I breathed a sigh of relief as I hopped down off the desk. Getting the ball gag was really risky, but I was glad it had worked out. Ross was by far one of the best people to bring out the rage within Arin and Danny, and I figured he needed to be the butt of a few jokes for a while. I checked my phone to see if I had any missed messages. I saw my best friend had texted me asking how things were going. As a response, I took a photo of Danny and Arin’s asses from behind and sent it to her with a caption stating:  _ At least I don’t have to search for GIFs anymore _ . She sent back a video of her dying of laughter and wished me luck with recording. I giggled and put my phone back in my pocket.

“You ready?” Arin asked, pulling up a chair for me to situate myself between the two Grumps.

“I mean no, but let's do it because content! I lied, I'm super stoked, sometimes my sarcasm escapes its cage please don't worry.” I had to ramble towards the end because I didn’t want them to be concerned. I really was excited. My natural coping mechanism for everything is just, acerbic bullshit.

“Great! Here’s what we have planned so far. Come sit down!” 


	11. Chapter 11

“So what are we going to do before the pajama party tomorrow?” I asked around a piping slice of pizza. 

We had finished recording the 10 Minute Power Hour and a two part play through of Mortal Kombat. I even got to see first hand Arin drooling everywhere. Conveniently I had a small pack of wet naps in my pocket which really added to the hilarity of the scenario. No one was really ready for me to pull them out wordlessly and plop them on the table. Danny even fell off his chair. 

After absolutely wrecking them in Mortal Kombat, which I had to admit was really violent for the channel in my opinion, it was decided that we would stop for the day and I got to pick what we would eat for dinner. I was feeling lazy so I just suggested pizza.

“Side note, Danny do you follow the Kosher rules? I know you don’t drink but...can you eat pizza and hamburgers and chips without hunting for the special K? Wait, was that insensitive to ask?” I started panicking from my spot on the bean bag chair. Brian reached over and patted my head again. I am now officially certain I have been adopted as his second child.

Dan spoke up from my other side as he continued to throw olives across the room at Arin and Suzy. “It’s not super out there, but I don’t really practice the Jewish faith. Like, I am still Jewish and that will always be a part of me, but I don’t see a world where I can’t enjoy a good hamburger.”

“Yeah I don’t think lube and condoms are Kosher either Sexbang.” Arin threw in after swallowing a mouthful of cheese pizza.

“Fun fact!” I interjected excitedly, “Did you know you can actually purchase Kosher lube and condoms?” I discovered it while I was on google the other day.

“What kinds of google rabbit holes do you fall down Laura? You’re like a wellspring of random knowledge!” Suzy spoke up from her spot on the couch from around her mug.

“Oh you know, gotta have something to do when you finish your homework and still have five hours left in your overnight shift. You guys should see my world in Minecraft. It’s my crowning achievement in life.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ninja Brian and Danny share a look. I wonder what that was about? Meh, admittedly it could have been about anything seeing as Brian rarely speaks.

“Laura, do you have any homework you need to finish before you get back?” Brian asked, speak of the devil and all that. I ducked my head down and blushed as much as my brown skin would allow, which isn’t saying much but it’s the thought that counts dammit! Honestly, I had been working on it before going to sleep whenever I was dropped off at the hotel. Brian saw the embarrassment on my face. “Do you need help?”

“I-I mean i’ve been working on it! It’s just proofs and I hate that shit, and my professor is a dick and has it out for everyone in the class. I swear he has some kind of power complex and I have no clue how he’s still employed. He gave me a 5 out of 15 on an assignment because he said he wouldn’t grade chicken scratch and my stuff is super organized so I started typing everything but that’s like 13 pages of-”

“Woah woah woah, ok well I know what you’re doing before pajama party tomorrow.” Arin interrupted. Eyes wide with uncomprehension.

“What?” I mumbled.

“You and Ninja Brian are gonna have a study adventure!” I saw Brian nodding next to me. 

“A...study...adventure. What the hell is that?”

“Well me and Dan have some stuff to record anyways, and Brian already offered to help with your homework, by the way Brian what the fuck why don’t you ever talk this much you traitor, and we don’t want our nonsense ot get in the way of school. Like, ever. Sounds like graduating is super important to you. I mean shit, you can even come in your pajamas and just hang out at a desk. We have plenty. Or you can hang out at the wet bar! It’s not like we really use it all that much anyways.”

“I’ll bring cookies and redbull in case you run out of Starbucks. We can keep them in the fridge.” Brian piped up from his bean bag. 

“And I was planning on bringing breakfast for everyone, so I’ll make sure you have enough energy for the day too.” Suzy threw in smiling evilly when she saw the fear on my face.

“Great! We can help out our new friend, and get some work done too! What a fantastic idea Arin, i’m so glad I thought of it!” Ross threw in from the doorway. Arin immediately turned red and threw an empty pizza box at Ross, who dodged it was a yelp.

“Ross I swear to fucking god everyone is going to see first hand if that ball gag fits with the small straps!”

“Not if you can’t catch meee!” Ross yelled from down the hall. This prompted Arin to jump up and give chase while shouting several other expletives in Ross’s general direction.

“I guess means Ross won’t be driving me back to the hotel this evening?” I asked, finally calming down from the miniature panic attack I was having at the thought of the huge amounts of homework I had waiting for me. I had failed to notice Dan’s arm on my knee until he was moving it away to hold his sides from laughing at his best friend’s antics. Though it was small, I still felt comforted by the fact that these strangers who I only knew through Youtube until a few weeks ago were so quick to support me. 

If I started blushing when Dan put his hand back on my leg once he had calmed down from his laughing fit well...I wasn’t going to say anything.

“Come on Laura, I’ll drive you home.” Brian threw in once Suzy got up to make sure Arin hadn’t killed an employee.

“Oh, can I go too!? I mean, if that’s ok. I kinda wanted to grab a burger. Pizza wasn’t really enough for me today.” Danny started scrabbling to get up from his bean bag. Arms and legs going everywhere like a beetle stuck on its back. Jesus he is just so awkward and lanky. I quickly stood up from mine and stuck my hand out for Danny to grab. He and Ninja Brian shared a look while I pulled him up from his stuck position. “Yes Brian, the question was directed towards both of you, but you’re driving this time. Thanks for the help Laura. Everyone is just so used to me being awkward that they don’t help me anymore.” He finished with a smile.

“No problem dude. I’m fine with you tagging along. I’m just going to head to the hotel though. I’m pretty worn out from recording and should probably get some studying in while I still have the mental faculties to do so.” I leaned over to grab my bag off the ground and bolted back up when my butt felt cold air. I guess my shirt had ridden up again. Whoops. Really hope I didn’t just flash everyone.

“Hey that’s a neat pocket design, it’s got your name on it! Do you mind texting me the website you ordered them from? I’d love to forward it to the design team. Leggings with Sexbang stitched on the back sounds perfect for a future music video.”

I nodded while trying not to let my internal trauma show on my face. Daniel Avidan looked at my butt. And appreciated the clothing, that covered it. Fucking hell. This is my life I guess.

“I would but I don’t have your number homie. Only Suzie’s.”

“Oh that’s not an issue at all! Here, pull your phone out.”


	12. Chapter 12

I relapsed today. Well, last night to be exact. I...I was doing okay for a while. A few months. But then I laid down on my bed and thought I’d call my roommates since it had been a while. The result was less than favorable.

They aren’t bad people per say. There’s just a certain way that they believe things needed to be done and didn’t take to change very well. They were also very blunt. It was normally a good thing. To be blunt. To call me out on my childishness.

I suppose these past few days have just been...so immature? No that wasn’t the right word. I had been spending time around people whose jobs thrived on how many dick jokes they could fit in to one episode or, how large of a mess they could make in ten minutes. To hear on the phone about how I had better make sure my homework was getting taken care of, and that I needed to make sure my work schedule was taken care of when I got back felt like a slap in the face. I felt like I was wasting everyone’s time.

Who was I, the little child trying to fit in with adults, kidding? This wasn’t my world to play in. I had goals, and aspirations, I wanted to be a “baller”, and show my family how happy I was without them. Because that’s what I am right? Happy? Working all the time, and the school, and the homework, never spending too much money every month so I could afford rent and save up for vacations with my roommates  _ always _ with my roommates. 

Don’t go anywhere on your own Laura it isn’t safe, you’ll make bad decisions like you always do. I wasn’t to be trusted. 

Don’t come across as flirty like you always do Laura, they aren’t worth your time. Let me see if you’re being appropriate in your texts Laura. I wasn’t to be trusted.

Tell me how much is in your bank accounts Laura, I just want to make sure you aren’t spending all of it. Gotta be responsible you know. I wasn’t to be trusted.

Make sure you do your homework. Let me see your GPA again, are you taking classes you’re sure you’ll pass? I wasn’t to be trusted.

I wasn’t to be trusted. But i’m happy.

**I wasn’t to be trusted. But i’m happy.**

** _I wasn’t to be trusted. But i’m happy._ **

** _I WASN’T TO BE TRUSTED. BUT I’M-_ **

I relapsed today. Well, last night to be exact. The being that was Laura broke down. Her scars reopened. New scars were left. Festering wounds and self told lies.

**Suzy, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it in today. I don’t feel too good.**

_ Help me i’m drowning.  _ ** _Help me i'm drowning. _ ** ** _Help me i’m drowning_ **

**But what about the study adventure with Brian?**

_ Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. _

**I’m sorry I just**

**I can’t**

**Not today.**

**I’ll probably catch up regardless**

**And you guys have stuff to do anyways right? You don’t need me there.**

_ Look at you. Lying to the people who chose you? You’re nothing to them anyways. Useless. Go back to work. You’re happy when you’re working. You don’t need a break, you need to work. Homework, housework, work. Work. WORK.  _ ** _WORK. _ ** ** _WORK._ **

**…**

**Is everything ok?**

**Yeah**

**Yeah i’ll be ok. I just don’t feel good. You know me, weak constitution and all that.**

_ Not worth it. Help me i’m drowning. Not worth it. You’re nothing to them anyways. Wasting their time. Useless.  _ **I wasn’t to be trusted. ** _ Not worth it.  _ ** _Help me im drowning. _ ** _ Not worth it. Wasting their time. You’re happy when you’re working. Useless. Not worth it. Not worth it.  _ ** _But i’m happy. _ ** _ Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it.  _ ** _WORK. _ ** _ Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. You don’t need a break, you need to work. Not worth it. Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless. Not worth it.  _ ** _I wasn’t to be trusted. But i’m happy. _ ** _ Not worth it. Wasting their time. Useless.  _ ** _Help me i’m drowning. HELP ME I’M-_ **

**“** Laura? Can I come in?”

“Danny?”


	13. Chapter 13

Today was the day that Danny was supposed to pick me up from the hotel. Today of all days.

“How did you even get in here?!”

“We chose this hotel because a family friend runs it. I get a pretty neat discount when travelling for tours. More importantly, Suzy said you weren’t feeling good is there anything I can get you? I thought today was-”

“I know today was supposed to be the study adventure with Brian Dan. I just. I just don’t feel good okay? I’m sorry.” I knew I looked like a mess. I was buried under every blanket I could scrounge up, my hair looked like I had been tossing and turning all night, my eyes were red and watery, there were tissues everywhere and a spilled bottle of Benadryl left a medicinal moat that Dan easily stepped over to get a closer look at my form in the gloom.

“Hey, hey. This...this doesn’t sound, or look like a cold kind of ‘not feeling good.’ You wanna tell me what’s wrong?” 

I just wanted to sink further into my mound of pillows. Leigh Daniel Avidan can tell, easily apparently, that I’m having a mental fucking breakdown and now wants to talk about it. So much for pushing everything down and hiding it. Fuck.

“You know,” Dan began, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, pushing my now rumpled Snorlax onesie out of the way. I had set it out for pajama night along with my Pikachu. I was planning on making a wardrobe change. Like a true nerd. “When I got sick a few years back, I was in a really bad place. I had OCD, I felt like I didn’t fit in my own skin. It just seemed like everyone wanted me to think or act a certain way, and there was this overbearing wave of concern that exuded from everyone. Like I was some kind of china set that would break if they set me down too hard. There were days where...I couldn’t get out of bed. I snapped at Brian all the time, wouldn’t talk to Arin, sometimes Suzy would have to manhandle me into the shower because I couldn’t even find the willpower to do that much.” Dan sighed and ran his hand through his hair. A nervous habit I noticed. “I guess what I'm trying to say is, i’m not Suzy.”

I paused from trying to smother myself in down feathers.

“I’m not Suzy, or Arin, or Brian, and I’m certainly not Ross. I know what it’s like to just...need a day in bed. I won’t judge you for it. I just want to make sure you know that. Everyone in the Grumps knows what it’s like to get overwhelmed.” He added in a little quieter, “I’m sorry we overwhelmed you.”

“You didn’t overwhelm me!” I burst in, rolling over and sitting up, startling Dan from his perch. He managed to stay sitting up but had to lean to keep his balance.

Danny took in my tiny frame that was practically swimming in a hamster onesie. “There you are Little Hamster, nice pajamas.” He smiled and I could feel my face warm. “A-anyways, what do you mean? Isn’t that what this is about? We overwhelmed you and you needed a break?”

“No! No, you guys were fine! More than fine. Amazing actually.”

“That’s what she said.” Danny threw in, earning a slap on the arm. He snickered and moved further onto the bed, presumably to stretch his legs out. Tall people problems. I moved to accommodate him anyways. Now he and were facing each other. “Ok but if it’s not us then what’s wrong?”

I hesitated before opening my mouth. It was one thing to open up to a complete stranger who asked about your daily life offhandedly. But this was a person who knew what it was like to struggle, who knew what it meant to have personal demons yelling at you all the time. What if he didn’t think my problems were justified? What if he thought I was being dramatic?

“Nothing you say is going to come across as dramatic, or a waste of my time Laura. In fact,” He paused, pulling out his phone and sending a quick message, “ I just told Arin I wouldn’t be making it in to work today so there. Now you’re stuck with me.” He stuck his tongue out. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hit him for wasting his day on someone he barely knew. Fucking Leigh Daniel Avidan and his stupid mind reading self and his awkward long legs that left shoe debris in my bed.

“Shoes.”

“What was that?”

“I’ll...I’ll tell you if your get your shoes out of my bed…”

He was silent for a moment.

“Only if you share the blankets.”

“You don’t have to subject yourself to heat torture to make me comfortable Dan, it’s like at least 95 degrees under all of this.”

“Oh no dude, i’m fucking freezing scoot over. Hamsters have the best nests. Look out, Daddy Long Legs Awkward Thumbs comin’ through.” I burst out laughing at the nickname. Laughing felt nice. I kept laughing as he shuffled me to the side and stole a pillow to prop himself up. “Wait hold on,” he said, sitting up. He put his hair into a ponytail and flopped back down, making himself comfortable. “Yeah I was right, Hamsters have the best nests. Ok. So. Talk. What’s on your mind Little Hamster.”

“Just because neither you nor I can sweat like normal people does not mean-”

“Laura. You’re procrastinating. Not saying there’s a time limit, but I know BSing when I hear it, it’s my literal job. We can talk about random stuff for hours if it’ll make you feel better but talking about the root of the problem is way healthier. I’ll even help you compose a better alibi for Suzy later if you want. Talk to me,” he patted my head, “tell me what’s going on.”

I sighed. I guess my usual tricks won’t work then. I leaned into his hand and closed my eyes.

“You’re in for a really long story.”


	14. Chapter 14

We talked for hours. Pausing whenever I got too worked up and needed to cry. Pausing when Danny got worked up and needed to pace while muttering profanities under his breath. Pausing to order food and hydration when we both realized I hadn’t eaten since last night at the Grump office.

I showed him the scars on my arms and thighs. I showed him the messages and screenshots. How I couldn't really feel anything on my thighs or ass after years of trauma. “Like, I know you’re touching my leg because I can feel the pressure, but the actual contact point is numb. I can’t even feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket.” I told him about the Bulimia and Anorexia. The dark days, the lonely days. 

The days when I wanted to die. He looked around at the trail of pills thrown everywhere but didn’t say anything.

We looked at pictures of my siblings. The ones from years ago because I was blocked from their social media. How I wanted to rescue them one day before they were brainwashed like I used to be. I told him about my hopes and goals, aspirations and fears, I told him everything.

I just kept going and going until I ran out of things to say. Until I ran out of tears. Until I was too tired to be sad or angry. Until I could barely pick my head up from his shoulder to drink the juice he kept putting in my hands. Until I barely noticed when he laid me down and stood up to pick up the tissues and the pill bottle. The trail of small pink and white capsules that stood out in stark contrast to the dark plush carpet until he swept them up into a pile and threw them in the trash, promising to buy more from the store if my allergies got too bad again.

I felt him crawl back under the blankets next to me and pull me next to him. It had to have been in the afternoon but I was just, so fucking tired. So with Danny petting my hair and whispering comfort into my ear, I went to sleep. Just for a little while.

  
  


I woke up to my watch vibrating. Someone was texting me nonstop. I growled with thinly veiled animosity, and prepared to launch my phone through a window.

“Last time I checked Hamsters don’t growl.” Someone yawned from behind me. I froze, this morning’s events slamming me back to reality faster than a gut punch.

“Fuck!” I sat up, rubbing my eyes vigorously and trying to pat my hair into some semblance of normalcy. I felt a hand reach out and sluggishly tug mine away from the Hamster hood I was trying to pull over my head.

“No, no leave it. I like it messy. Mine is probably no better anyways.” I wanted to grumble in Danny’s direction when I felt my phone go off again. I growled with a little more effort.

“You don’t like being woken up huh?” Danny asked while reaching over to hand me my phone and pick up his own. I grunted and looked down at all my notifications. My best friend, and some other number I didn’t recognize had left me countless messages. I responded to the number I knew first.

**Hey V. Sorry I went AWOL for a min.**

**No problem Beench (** pronounced Bee-nch, not bench)  **Just wanted to make sure you weren’t getting kidnapped in Cali**

**Nah, I just didn’t get out of bed today. Episode.**

**Oh shit. You good?**

**Yeah bb all better now. Had to sleep it off**

**Well, i’m here if you need to talk**

**Thnks wifey**

“Wifey?” Danny was looking over my shoulder. I didn’t really mind. He kinda knew everything about me at this point.

“She’s my best friend.” I replied, voice gravelly and deep with sleep that hadn’t worn off yet. “The running joke is if we’re still single by the time she’s thirty we were just going to turn lesbian and marry each other. For now she’s just my hoe. See?” I showed him her contact name in my phone: Laura Da Pimp’s Hoe. “Her decision not mine. I don’t deserve her.”

Danny laughed and patted my head. I think everyone has a thing for my hair I swear.

“No one deserves you Little Hamster. And look! Your voice went through puberty in your sleep!” He deserved the smack I gave him with one of the many pillows strewn about. ”Was she the one that kept blowing up your phone though?”

“Nah some other number I don’t recognize. I was about to check their messages so I could figure it out.”

**Laura**

**Lauraaaaaa**

**Laura, I stole your number from Suze**

**She said you’re sick!**

“I think I know who this is…” Danny sighed comically and held up his phone for me to see.

**Dannyyyyy **

**How could you abandon me like this my loooove**

**What kind of man gets sick?!**

**It’s the mouthwash im telln you**

I sighed and feigned disdain. “Whyyy is he spamming both of us? He has a company. Two, companies to run, and he has time to blow up both our phones. Murder.”

**Hello person I am assuming is Arin who’s been blowing up my phone while I slept**

**LAURA YOU’RE ALIVE**

**IM SRY YOURE SICK**

**PLEASE FEEL BETTER**

**Thanks Arin. Have a good day!**

**YOU TOO**

**Sorry**

**You too! Take some medicine**

“No Laura, no murdering my boss. He pays me the monies and lets me buy Rush T-shirts on the company’s dime.” I laughed at that part, finally starting to wake up, not fully, that miracle was reserved for coffee.

As if on queue, there was a knock at the door, startling me out of my thoughts.

“The fuck?”

“I hope you don’t mind, I really needed caffeine, and I figured you might need some coffee so I had some scheduled to be brought up here around the time we would have woken up.”

“How did you know when we would have woken up?”

“I set an alarm that I already deactivated when I first heard you growl at the phone. I don’t need you murdering me. I like my life thank you.” He said, getting up to answer the door. He was right, his hair was trashed. I felt a little bad for him though. Sleeping in jeans had to have been uncomfortable. I still took a picture of his ass when he wasn’t looking though. To send to V later for the archives. “What are you smiling about over there Hamster?”

“Nothing!” I replied hiding my smile with my sleeves.

“Right…” I could practically taste the skepticism in the air as he handed me my massive cup of what was more likely than not 70% cream and sugar, and 30% coffee. Just the way I needed it. “So. It’s actually only 11:30.”

“Wut.” I asked, disbelieving. The dark made everything feel so much later. “I thought we had slept the whole day away.” I shook my head and took another sip of my drink, Danny cradling his in his hands as he sat back on the bed. “What am I going to do with the rest of my day? I can’t really call Suzy back and tell her I made a miraculous 6 hour recovery.”

“Well I figured  _ we _ , “ He emphasized, “could work on some of your homework since i’m pretty sure you got to none of it last night. And then maybe if we finish in time I can still drive us over to the pajama party! The day is still young.”

“No offense Danny, but my homework is kinda, stupidly, ridiculously, annoyingly fucking hard.”

“Excuse you Hamster, I used to do the math remember?” He scoffed and tossed his hair. “Even if I don’t know the concepts I can still learn them and help where I can. I’ll read ahead of you and help with whatever you get stuck on.” He reached over and stole my glasses off the night stand, plopping them onto my face before squinting his eyes. “God Laura, I can practically see into the future with these how blind are you?”

“ Shut up, the better to see through the Bullshit man, be glad you weren't with me through the rose colored glasses phase. Dark times indeed. And I guess we can do that. Be prepared to yell at my nonexistent professor though. He kinda sucks all kinds of dick. And not in the fun Gay way.” I sat up and went over to my backpack.

“Well he’s no fun. Tell him I'd be more than happy to offer a lesson the next time he’s in town. The fun Gay kind.”

“Daniel!”

“Hamster!”

“Why do you keep calling me that!?”

“Because you’re wearing a hamster onesie and you look absolutely adorable in it.” I blushed at the compliment, but my head was turned so he couldn’t see.

“Well i’m not calling you Daddy Long Legs Awkward Thumbs if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

“Nah, just Daddy is fine.”

“Danny!” I screeched, throwing a pillow at him. 

“What!?”


	15. Chapter 15

We had only managed to get through two homework assignments in six hours. Part of it was because Danny got tired of reading my textbook and wanted to work on a different assignment, and the other part was because we kept getting distracted, telling each other jokes and anecdotes about the crazy shit that happened in our day to day lives. As I got to know Danny a little more, I realized that we had a lot in common.

We were currently in the car, heading towards the Grump office. Dan was bemoaning the fact that onesies were rarely long enough to fully encapsulate his body, and I was laughing at the Unicorn robe he had chosen to wear to the party. He had really appreciated the fact that I knew it was similar to the one he wore in Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and I appreciated the fact that he remembered to wear the Unicorn slippers.

Once we had both finished dying of laughter, he asked me what my favorite NSP song was.

“Well, to be honest, it used to be Danny Don’t You Know.” I admitted.

“Ok so what changed?’ He asked, curious. “Don’t tell me NSP was just a phase and now you like that new age fancy Postpone myLoans dude.” He said, throwing in a funny accent which made me burst into giggles.

“Hey! Don’t hate on my boy Post Malone, his shit is pretty good!” I giggled. “But no, it actually got dethroned by a song you did outside of NSP.”

“Please don’t tell me your favorite song is Self-care Sunday.”

“No God no! It was a really funny video though. It’s actually um, Starlight Brigade.” I looked down at my Snorlax covered lap when I was met with silence. It took me a second to realize that we were no longer moving. At some point Danny had safely drove us into the Grump parking lot.

I looked up to see Dan watching me with an unreadable expression.

“Why?” He asked quietly.

“Why what?” I asked nervously. “Why are you being weird about it?”

“Why do you like that one? Tell me.” His brown eyes were digging into mine. Trying to pull out some kind of answer. I was afraid mine wouldn’t live up to his expectations. “Don’t be afraid, just tell me. You won’t hurt my feelings.”

“I dunno. The lyrics really speak to me. I just remember listening to them for the first time and tearing up as I watched the music video. I get serious Daft Punk vibes from the bass line, and it really showcases your vocal range. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Danny Don’t You Know for a lot of the same reasons but, Starlight Brigade just...felt really relatable for a lot of reasons.” I closed my eyes as I spoke, replaying the song in my head with perfect recollection. “I could have, and did, listen to it on repeat for hours.” I opened my eyes and smiled while looking out the windows, the epitome of serenity and peace. I turned to face Danny and smiled wider. “You’re a really good singer Danny, you touch the hearts of a lot more people than you realize. Not just as an entertainer, but as a relatable person who always manages to stay optimistic no matter what. And it shows brightest when you’re singing. You’re the only person I listen to out of my 900 songs on my phone that can bring me to tears with a rendition of The Last Unicorn or a song about space power rangers”

Danny was silent while I spoke. When it was obvious I had finished talking he opened his mouth.

“Laura…” My eyes widened. It was probably the first time since this morning that he hadn’t called me Hamster. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. I started panicking when he walked over to my side and opened the door. “Seatbelt.”

“Um am I-”

“Seatbelt.  _ Please _ .” I quickly complied and unbuckled my seatbelt. He stood back so I could step out of the car before walking around me. He confused me even further by sitting back in the passenger seat before beckoning me closer.

“What’s up Dan?” I asked as I walked closer. When I was within arms length he reached out and pulled me into his lap for the tightest hug I have ever experienced in my life. Not in a ‘trying to murder me’ kind of way so much as a ‘this person really needed a hug’ kind of way. 

It took me a moment to realize that Danny was shaking as he buried his face in my shoulder.

“Danny?” I asked, and felt him mumble something into my shoulder. I adjusted myself on his legs to put his mouth closer to my ear. “I can’t hear what you’re saying Dan.”

He lifted his head from my shoulder for a second to repeat himself before dropping back down. 

“It’s Leigh. Can you call me Leigh? Please?”

I leaned over and closed the car door before scooting the chair back so we were more comfortable. Long legs and all that.

“Leigh…” I began, tasting the word in my mouth and deciding I didn’t mind the change, “why are you crying? Did I say something to hurt your feelings?” I started petting his hair which had escaped from the Unicorn hood, and wrapped my other arm around to rub his back. 

Dan-Leigh sniffled before picking up his hear and wiping his eyes on his sleeve and leaning back to look at me.

“Sorry I just...you know you hear all of these screaming fans yelling about how much they love you and they buy your merch and the music and coo at you during meet and greets and I just, “he paused to catch his breath, “someone like you comes along and you’ve been through so much hardship, and it's overwhelming to know that someone like me, some old dude who waltzes around in blue spandex and Unicorn robes, can make a person feel that way you know? I’m just me.”

“But Leigh,” I began, leaning forwards so he could see the sincerity on my face through the darkness of the car. “That’s why it’s so special. Because you are just you. Not some big corporation, or some scheme to make money. You just want to have fun and sing about what you feel. I can’t tell you how honored and in awe I felt when tiny little broken me got chosen to meet such icons. To me, you being you is what makes you legendary.” Leigh started tearing up so I leaned forwards to start petting his hair again. Everyone needed a moment to let it out. Mine was this morning, and his was now.

We stayed in that position for a long time. Holding each other through our insecurities and our hopes and dreams. The pajama party was forgotten as we just basked in the company of another broken person who understood what it meant to be on the path to fixing yourself.

After a moment I spoke up, softly to not ruin the moment. “Do you maybe wanna, head back to my hotel room? We can have our own movie night in the nest and have room service bring us popcorn and tea.” Leigh leaned away from my shoulder with a dazed look on his face. “Good morning sleepy head. Did you hear what I said?” Looking into his face for some semblance of lucidity.

“Mm. Yeah. Sorry.” He blinked awareness back into his eyes before looking around and remembering what happened. “Man, for someone so tiny you’re awfully comfortable.”

“Gee thanks Leigh.” I replied with a hint of sarcasm as I smacked him in the arm.

“I guess our plan to make it to the pajama party got a little messed up huh? Sorry.”

“Nah it’s all good. We hadn’t really told anyone we were on our way so we can dip out without saying anything either. We should probably get up though.” I finished, looking down at our um...position. In the act of pulling me into a bear hug and me trying to keep my legs from falling asleep, I had managed to straddle Leigh’s lap. Not to mention his robe was slowly but surely coming undone and exposing ample amounts of his chest. “Hm. Not that I really mind though.” I mentioned offhandedly as I gave him a once over. My comment made him laugh as he sat up. 

“Here let me-” I didn't get the chance to finish before he opened to car door with one hand and stepped out while holding me with the other arm around my ass. I would like to say I didn’t squeak in surprise as I was moved around and rearranged back in the passenger seat with no effort on my part. But then I would be lying.

“Look at you squeaking like a little bunny.” Leigh laughed as he leaned over to buckle me in.

“Oh it’s Bunny now? And I can buckle myself in thank you very much!” I grumbled as I swatted at him to move. The blush on my face could have lit up the night sky. Thankfully the other witness was distracted by his task.

“Yep! That sound was just adorable. I’m changing the name to Bunny. Now come on, I want to stop by the store before we get to the hotel.” He joked as he made his way around the car.

“Fine, but I get to pick the candy.” I replied, perking up at the idea of snacks.

“Sure Bun, we’ll see what they have when we get there.” And we pulled out of the Grump space, headed back the way we came.


	16. Chapter 16

“So, what did you want to watch while I absolutely trash you in Uno?” I flopped down on the bed as Leigh puttered about in the small kitchenette space. He started laughing at my comment as he unloaded bags.

“First of all. I am the King of Uno so there’s no way I’m getting trashed off of anything other than this bottle of…”

“It’s Jack Daniels. Are you sure you wanna drink? It’s not really your...thing you and Arin could barely handle a bottle Guinness between the two of you.” I kept looking through channels as I spoke. I trusted Leigh not to break anything. 

I heard a scoff before he came into view with two glasses filled with ice, the bottle, and a deck of Uno cards. I settled on Coraline before scooting over so we both had space for everything. “ I’ll have you know that I used to be quite the party animal back in my day.”

“Dude, you smoked weed. Everyone does that nowadays.”

“I know that! I was just saying I'm not a saint. Not like you smoke weed or anything.” Wordlessly i reached into the side table drawer and pulled out my vape pen, making sure it was still on and taking a hit. I blew the smoke as rings into his Unicorned face. Leigh’s jaw dropped.

“Shut. The fuck up. Bunny. No.”

“Yup.” I handed him the rainbow shift chrome pen for inspection. “It’s lemon flavored I think? If you wanted to try it. No pressure, I know it’s been a while. And you don’t really have to clean it. I’m not a germ person or anything.”

Leigh seemed to contemplate it for a moment before bringing the cartridge to his lips. I have to admit I was surprised. Part of me was concerned that I was becoming a bad influence on the Not so Grump. First drinking, now he’s getting high with me in a hotel room? Dark times are ahead. I laughed out loud at the thought.

“What?” 

“Nothing. Shit just works fast is all. Be careful. It’ll last through a full night’s sleep.”

“I know how it works Bun, just be ready for popcorn in like...30 minutes.”

“Okay okay! Geez. Hurry up and deal dude i’m ready to Uno murder you. One sip per loss homie get ready to feel Jack Daniels up your  _ ass _ .” Leigh burst out laughing hard at my words. Obviously he got giggly and I got talkative. This was going to be a fun night.

“What the fuck,” He said between bursts of laughter, “Is an Uno murder?!”

“It’s what happens when plebs don’t know who the true King of Uno is!”

“You mean Queen?”

“I know what I fucking said Avidan eat my ass!” Queue even more hysterical laughter to the point of my soon to be doomed player two almost falling off the bed. This was going to be a fun night.

“Avidaniel?”

“Yes Marilyn Hanson?”

“Are you...hung over?”

“Nah, I made him try some coffee this morning when he came to pick me up. I don’t think it agreed with him.” I interjected on behalf of Leigh who, understandably, looked like garbage. We figured it wasn’t a good idea to admit to all of the tomfoolery that occurred last night.

In all actuality, Leigh had spent the night cuddling me to death after I made good on my promise and beat him so thoroughly at Uno he was crossfaded three hours into the battle. I may or may not have several compromising photos and videos of him in various forms of undress, belting out the lyrics to unreleased NSP songs hidden in my phone gallery but...he didn’t need to know that.

“Yeah...It wasn’t a good experience. I think I just have a caffeine headache. That’s the last time I take on Her Majesty in a bet.” Leigh threw in, glaring at me when Arin couldn’t see. We were driving over to the Ninja Sex Party film set for me to see where the “Magic Sexy Times” happened as Arin chose to phrase it. Leigh and I sat in the back seat of Arin’s car while he drove and Suzy sat shotgun.

I poked him in the side and giggled silently as he flinched and raised both his eyebrows at me in incredulity. I watched him pull out his cellphone and send two quick messages. One that i’m pretty sure went to Suzy, and the other to me.

**You are not challenging me to a tickle fight right now**

**Why pleb? Think i’ll win like i ruined your ass yesterday?**

Danny scoffed from his side of the car before hunkering down for the oncoming text war.

**First of all, I seem to remember you being in a pretty wrecked state yourself bun**

**I let you win three times so you wouldn’t feel as sad**

**You should see your pouty face**

**Hard to crush all of your hopes and dreams**

I looked over to see Leigh pouting so I kicked him in the shin.

“Ow!”

“You good back there?” Suzy asked, concern in her voice as she glanced back at us. I held in my laughter and tried to hide myself as Leigh sent a glare in my direction before smiling sheepishly. 

“Yeah, I whacked my knee on the door and it was right on the bone. Awkward legs and all that.”

“Oh no!” I exclaimed with fake innocence. “Are you ok? I don’t think I have an ice pack in my bag.”

“I’m fine, thanks guys.”

“If you say so.” Suzy glanced backwards one last time before continuing her conversation with Arin.

**That was so rude**

**Aww u want me to kiss it better?**

**I’ll make you kiss something else jerk…**

**Is that a promise? ** I sent while making eye contact. Leigh’s expression became unreadable as he typed without looking at his screen.

**Behave bunny**

**What is with you today?**

Quite frankly I wasn’t sure. I just felt feisty and playful. I knew it had been a while, and Leigh knew of my situation with my roommates, but that didn’t matter. I just wanted to see how far it would go.

**Make me**

**Daddy**

I saw his eyes darken as he read my message, and could see the silent growl in his throat. I put my phone away and looked out the window, refusing to make eye contact. I was on vacation. Who said I couldn’t have a little fun? I hid my smile with my hand.


	17. Chapter 17

****

I was doing homework in my bed when I felt my phone vibrate. 

**Hey**

**Hey Leigh what’s up?**

**I’m bored**

**Hi bored, i’m Laura**

**Lol rly**

**Yes**

**What r u up 2?**

**Homework**

**Cool let me in?**

**Wut**

I heard a knock at my door.  _ This guy _ … I got up and padded over to the door. Checking the peephole before opening the door. Sure enough, Leigh Daniel Avidan was back outside my door, this time at 9 pm with arms full of...electronics and snacks? The hell? I let him in and helped him set down all of his stuff.

“So...you wanna tell me why you’re coming over for the third time in two days and this time with...hacker’s delights?” I asked while flopping back down on my bed and eating some popcorn from the bag I had popped. 

“Well, Brian was off doing Brian things and Arin is busy helping Suzy with Mortimer things and I was bored, so… here I am!” He threw his arms out before diving onto the bed nearly throwing everything, including myself off of it. At least he had taken off his shoes this time.

I threw some popcorn in his direction. “I was eating that! No spilling!” I huffed.

“Did you have fun on set today?” Leigh asked as he pulled his hair out of its ponytail and unearthed a backpack from underneath the pile of everything he brought.

I figured he wasn’t talking about me harassing him in the car so I put the thought out of my head. For now. “Yeah! I always wanted to touch the spandex you used for materials. And i’m glad my suspicions were confirmed and my roomie does have the same sneakers as you. Too bad I now have a terrible image of him in spandex in my head now.” I muttered. Really, some images should never be created or imagined. That was one of them. “Oh! And I really want one of your capes. I would look fantastic at the Renaissance festival. Imagine, sequins glittering in the wind!” I threw my arms out wistfully at the thought earning giggles from Leigh.

“Oh good!” My newfound player two called from the bathroom, after he draped his leather jacket onto the armchair. “I’m just gonna go put on some pajamas really quick ok?”

“Sure no problem!” I called back from my spot. I really needed to finish this last problem before I could mess with anything he brought. I was so focused I didn’t notice when he came back out. 

I did notice, however, when he pushed me over. I thought he was trying to wrestle when he chose to loom over me. Shirtless. Why was he shirtless?

“Leigh...why are you shirtless?”

“Payback.”

“...payback. For what?”

“For earlier.” He purred, leaning closer and nuzzling my hamster hood out of the way. I was too stunned to move. Where was this coming from? And why, why did stubble have to feel so nice against skin? It was so...distracting. Apparently that’s what he wanted as he kept doing it while reaching over to the side table. Pulling his arm back towards both of us he started moving my head further over, exposing more of my neck.

Suddenly I went from melting to freezing, freezing cold.

“Jesus mother fucking christ what the fuck Leigh???” The asswipe had put an ice cube on my neck! “God Fuck that was so fucking cold! You asshole!” I started hopping around the room while rubbing my neck, hoping the friction would heat up my now frozen skin.

The shirtless man was currently writhing on the floor with laughter from where I threw him in my quest to escape. I stomped over to him with murder in my eyes.

“Wait wait wait! Come on that was too fucking funny! Besides you totally deserved it from earlier and you know it.” Leigh started pleading before defending his face with both arms. I had grabbed a pillow from the bed and prepared my assault.

“Fuck you that was terrible! I don’t like ice play! Too cold!” I shrieked as I started to beat him with pillows. I knew I wasn’t hurting him, and he laughed the whole time. It was fun though. Being this open with someone who knew everything about me and didn’t really mind it all.

“Ow, ow ok ok! Okay. Ok no more ice i'm done!”

“Fine. And put a fucking shirt on you perv.” I stood up and replaced my weapon of choice on the bed, adjusting my onesie so it sat properly on my body. Why do I have such a thing for baggy pajamas? Who knows! Actually it was pockets. More space to hide snacks.

“I am not a perv! And I don’t have one so there. Suffer.” He said while sitting up, hair a mess that he didn’t even try to fix. “I forgot to grab one and I don’t want to wear the one from earlier. So unless you have an oversized t-shirt I can borrow, we are both gonna have to deal.”

“Oh my God.” I groaned, throwing my hands into the air in mock defeat. “You’re an actual mess. Fine! Fine. Tell me about all this junk you decided to dump on my coffee table.”

“Well you see,” Danny began, gesturing in a grandiose fashion, “I demand a rematch, and as such we will be playing racing games under the same parameters as yesterday.”

I feigned concern but internally I was laughing my ass off. He had no idea what he was in for. Racing games were in my blood. Gran Tourismo, Forza, GTA, anything that had a racing aspect was subject to my domination. But I'd let him have his fun before I thrashed him. “Are you sure? Maybe we could play trivial pursuit or something instead!”

His laughter told me he fell for the trap hook, line, and sinker. The fool. He’d learn the hard way why pranking me was in no one’s best interest. 

“Alright I guess. Do you need help setting it up?”

“No I’ve got it. Would you mind getting the drinks though?”

“Sure, you want the pen too or nah.”

“Mmm...not today. I’d like to be lucid enough to see your face of defeat.” His excited face was cute. Too bad it wouldn’t last. There would be blood tonight.

“Are...you fucking kidding me. HOW!?!” Leigh demanded for the umpteenth time this evening. He threw his hands up in the air as I rolled around on my side of the bed cheering for the eighth victory in a row. “How did you even do that!? I passed you!”

“Leigh, I let you pass me.” I laughed as I took a sip of my rum and coke. At this point I was drinking for fun, the competition forgotten on my end. I felt great, but more likely than not it was the alcohol talking. “Sorry darlin, I forgot to mention that I am a whizz at racing games too. Now drink.”

“But I was beating you for so long!”

I sighed as I watched him take another swallow. This one slightly larger than normal in his distracted state of mind. He was also pretty hammered. Lightweight.

“See, Leigh, what you gotta understand, is this was all apart of my plan. From the moment you mentioned what kinds of games we would be playing tonight you were stuck in a trap. Face it. I’m simply too amazing to handle!” I slurred out my victory speech with my eyes closed while I lay on my back. Too dazed by alcohol and victory to focus on anything else other than the sound of victory and the cries of defeat. “Ah yes, a much deserved victory indeed. Side note. Leigh, it is hot as balls in here what did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything! I don’t like messing with thermostats.”

“Well it’s melting in here so you must have done something.”

“I’m telling you I didn’t!”

“Did.”

“Didn’t! Will you stop hitting me with pillows???”

“Only when you tell the truth darlin’. The truth will set you free!” I giggled at my joke. “Anyways if you’re not going to do something about it then I will. This is unbearable, I'm literally going to die of heat stroke.” I sat up and started pulling at my onesie. “Stupid, fucking, thing!”

“...do you need help Bunny?” 

“No I don’t need your help! Keep-” Another aggressive tug.”-Keep grovelling plebeian, know your place! Side note have you guys ever played Bayonetta on your channel? Good shit.”

“Dude, just let me help you!” Leigh began as he reached over.

The resulting battle was short lived.The offering and refusal of help turned into a wrestling match between the two of us. I eventually forgot why we were wrestling, but I still had fun trying to beat him.

Pop.

_ Ah, shit. _


	18. Chapter 18

“Laura?”

“Don’t, don’t look ok?”

“Bunny.”

“I said don’t look! Just let me, just let me fix it fucking stupid fucking snaps.” My fucking onesie came undone, and I wasn’t really wearing much underneath it in the first place. I kept looking down at my chest as I willed my fingers to work in their drunken state. My vision started blurring with frustrated tears and I sniffled.

“Bunny. Baby, c’mere it’s ok. Don’t cry! Let me fix it, it’s ok.”

“I’m not crying because I’m sad you jerk, I cry when I'm frustrated!” I wasn’t even wearing cute underwear. How embarrassing.

“You wanna tell me why you’re only wearing underwear under a onesie that opens so easily? This is a very nice color by the way.” Leigh started as he pulled me to the edge of the bed and knelt in front of me. I refused to look at him as he did up the snaps.

“Well I don’t normally wear anything under any of my onesies.” At this, Leigh paused. Hands stilling halfway up the path of snaps.

“Any of them?”

“Nope. It gets too hot and I hate it.”

“W-What about the Snorlax one from yesterday?” I caught on to what he was implying and decided to mess with him one last time before I passed out from exhaustion.

“That one especially. I normally don’t even wear panties because of how warm it gets there.”

“I-I see.” The object of my teasing stood up abruptly and turned away from me. ”Well! I need to take a shower, you go ahead and climb in bed. I’ll see you when I get out.”

“Shit can I run to the restroom first? I’m dying.” I blew past him before he had the chance to reply. I really did have to pee, and ran into a legitimate issue when I finished. “U-um hey Leigh?”

“Yeah?’

“So remember how I needed your help with the snaps?” I sighed in defeat. I couldn’t win could I?

“Yeah?”

I stepped out of the bathroom completely unsnapped. “I need your help again. Sorry.”

“Jesus Bunny.” Leigh breathed a blush creeping down his neck at my exposure.. “Look at you.” I suddenly felt like a very much sought after piece of meat. I didn’t normally expose myself like this, but I was still very drunk. Maybe he’ll forget in the morning? Hopefully. He started stalking towards me and I backed up into the bathroom. Great and now I was cornered.

He reached out and fingered my bra strap, tracing it down to the lace that cupped my chest. The touch was fleeting but I still flushed at the contact. “You’re killing me, you know that right? With your cute hood and sleeves, those big eyes and flushed cheeks, like a present wrapped in pretty packaging. Is that a belly button piercing? Naughty, naughty.” All the while he kept watching his hand draw patterns on my lingerie. “And to think such a pretty present was in my lap, literally in my lap yesterday and I never even knew. I should’ve punished you more naughty girl.”

I whimpered as he continued to whisper. His voice getting lower and lower and his mind started to wander. Hearing me seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he fell into. “Do you want me to fix your pajamas Bunny?” He asked with the same tone. I nodded. “Use your words Bunny.”

“Y-yes please.” I responded submissively, trembling as his hands traveled further down my chest.

“Yes, please what?” He demanded, pinching my nipple through my bra. The sharp pain made me gasp.

“Yes, p-please Daddy?” I whimpered.

“Good girl. Go sit on the edge of the tub. Wait patiently for Daddy okay?”

“Yes Daddy.” The words came easier now that he had released me. I sat down on the edge of the tub and waited. Watching, noticing his lithe muscles rippling under his skin. His long legs hidden behind grey sweatpants. I realized he wasn’t wearing boxers and felt my panties dampen just a little more. He took his time, turning off the television, the game console, packing up the controllers and wires. Moving the dishes to the sink. All while watching me squirm in impatience. This was a test I realized. A test to see how patient I could be when I wasn’t in control. The thought made me immediately aware of the cool air on my skin, how hard the bathtub was beneath me, how badly I wanted Leigh to touch me, how much I wanted to touch him.

I was lost in thought when he finally came back to stand in the doorway.

“Was my little Bunny a good girl?”

“Yes Daddy.” I answered with excitement and longing in my voice. I subconsciously started leaning backwards, exposing my skin, inviting him to touch me. “Will you fix my pajamas now Daddy?”

“Of course baby girl, I promised didn’t I? But first I need you to do something for me.” He strode forwards and started petting my hair through my hood at my whine of disapproval.


	19. Chapter 19

Leigh Daniel Avidan. Danny. Leigh. Daddy. The names swirled around in my head, drowned out by the waves of my arousal. This version of him was different. Raw, aggressive, mind blowingly attractive. I looked up at my Daddy with hooded eyes. “What is it Daddy? I was good right? I waited.”

“I know Bunny,” Danny continued while still patting my head, his chocolate eyes freezing me in place, “but I made a promise in the car earlier and I plan on holding you to it.”

It took me a moment to remind myself of what he was talking about. My eyes widened when I understood, and I became blatantly aware that my face was directly in line with the bulge in his sweatpants. His now incredibly tight sweatpants. Sweet fucking Jesus.

My hesitation to respond made him falter and he switched back to regular Leigh. “I-is that ok? If it’s too far we can stop and play more video games or-” I knew that if I let him keep talking he’d talk himself out of it and be lost in thought for the rest of the night.

I blew my eyes wide and looked up at him from under my hood, propping my sleeve covered hands on his thighs. I leaned forwards as I spoke, rubbing my face against his bulge. “Daddy, whatever you want. It’s fine!”

Leigh was still unsure, I could see it in his eyes. “Ok but what i’m too rough, you’re so small, and we don’t even have a safe word.” I rolled my eyes temporarily dropping character. 

“Leigh.” I waited until his eyes were on me as I continued to nuzzle him through the fabric. “My face is rubbing against your dick. I just called you Daddy at least four times. If you don’t let me do  _ something  _ I will make you sleep on the floor.” He laughed at that, going back to rubbing my head through my hood.

“Bunny I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable is all. Can we at least have a safe word or something? It would make me feel better.”

I smiled up at him. “Sure! I mean, I plan on my mouth being busy,” He moaned in his throat at the thought, “but I guess...I can pat you three times in a row if I want to stop?” I demonstrated on his hip. My hand making a rapid triplet against his waistband. Once I finished showing him what I meant I left my hand on his hips. Gliding my nails across his skin. Reveling in his shivers, watching his eyes darken again in arousal. “Is that okay...Daddy?” I asked, gently gliding back and forth, marvelling at how soft his skin was. He nodded silently, giving me permission to continue.

This time I hooked my nails into the elastic of his waistband, pulling them down in one fell swoop. I saw more than heard his hiss at the exposure. With every breath his manhood bobbed in the air, arcing upwards, slightly wet at the tip.

I took his length in my hand watching his eyes follow the path it traveled up and down, twisting towards the tip. “Fuck Bunny...your hands are so soft.” I smiled up at him.

“Thank you Daddy!” I leaned forwards and licked the pre-cum beading on his tip. Leigh groaned at the feeling. I paused to look up at him. “Are you okay Daddy?”

Leigh met my eyes with his own. Pupils blown wide I could tell he was lost in feeling. “I don’t remember telling you to stop Bunny. Are you being naughty?”

“No Daddy!” I exclaimed and dived back down, taking half of him in one swoop, propping myself up with one hand on his leg. I felt his hand tighten on my head and hummed in approval. The feeling sent shivers through his body. As I bobbed up and down on his cock I took more and more down my throat until he was fully sheathed in my mouth.

“Fuuck Bunny, look at you swallowing my cock. You like that? You, mmh, like Daddy’s cock?” I looked up and whined with him still in my mouth and dug my nails into his leg. Relaxing my throat I held still as he started thrusting into my mouth. “Is this what you want Bunny?” He asked, harding both of his hands under my hood and into my hair, pulling my mouth along his cock. “You want me to fuck that tiny little mouth of yours? Fuck, so good Bunny, look at you swallowing me whole.” There was drool dripping down my chin now, the ears on my hood swaying back and forth as he picked up speed. I worshiped his cock as best as I could. Swirling my tongue, hollowing out my cheeks. As he got closer to cumming his dirty talk got worse, and I was sure my panties were ruined just from his words alone. “You like that? You like me fucking your hole? Look at you, you love it. Want Daddy to cum in his Bunny’s mouth huh? Mmmfuck you want me to cum on your face? Dirty, agh, dirty dirty girl.”

I moaned and begged with my eyes. Bracing myself against his legs as he started moving faster. I lost myself to the sensation of something that was purely Leigh’s. Letting him use me as he wanted. In that moment I was his personal cum dumpster. And I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t help but wonder what he would be like if he was fucking my pussy instead of my mouth. The thought made me moan around him.

With a wet “Pop” Leigh pulled his cock out of my mouth and started stroking it rapidly. “Open your mouth Bunny, show me how much you want it. Let me paint that cute little face of yours!” He moaned as I opened my mouth and stuck out my tongue. I waited patiently but it wasn’t long before he threw his head back and came, groaning out my name as ropes of cum erupted from his tip.

I tried to catch as much as I could with my mouth but honestly it went everywhere. My glasses, my cheeks, the bridge of my nose. I had to close one of my eyes so it didn’t get irritated. He tasted so good. I swirled it around in my mouth before swallowing. Opening my mouth for him to show I had swallowed what I could.

“Oh Bunny, such a good girl, did you like Daddy’s cum?” he began, smiling down at me after he regained his senses, “You made a mess! Want Daddy to lean it up for you?” He leaned over to dampen a washcloth for my face.

“Yes Daddy!” I smiled. I really didn’t mind the cum on my face as I waited patiently. Triumphant in my ability to make my Daddy cum. I tried not to think about how slick I was, or my desire to grind down on the edge of the bathtub for some kind of release. I ignored the shiny cock in my face, still half hard even after orgasm. I definitely paid no attention to the thought of watching it slide in and out me until I came hard, screaming in pleasure.

I held still as he crouched down onto his knees, wiping off my face and glasses. Checking to see if anything had gotten on my pajamas. Luckily they were still clean. “Daddy,” I asked, once there wasn’t a towel in my face,” are you gonna fix my pajamas now?”

Leigh smiled at me and pat my head. “Of course baby, lets go sit on the bed so Daddy can take care of you.”


	20. Chapter 20

I grinned gleefully and stumbled in my haste to stand earning a chuckle from Leigh. I turned and pouted at him before making my way to the bed, flinging myself towards the mountain of pillows giggling at the impact. I turned to see Leigh watching me with a smile, leaning against the doorway to the bathroom. The lights surrounded him like a halo. His hair wild, and body lithe. Dark eyes filled with mirth and arousal. A literal Greek God descended from Olympus. That was my Daddy.

“Bunny I can’t reach you if you’re all the way back there. Come to the edge.”

“Sorry Daddy.” I slid towards the end of the bed, knocking my hood back and accidentally sliding my pajamas partially off my shoulder. I didn’t really mind. I knew Daddy was going to fix it soon. 

He met me at the edge of the bed, kneeling between my legs and leaning in to me. His eyes held me in place as he reached for something behind me. He grabbed my hood and pulled it back over my hair. Patting the top of my ead and chuckling at how the action made the sewn on ears flutter. I sighed and closed my eyes with contentment as he continued to fix my clothes, pulling the garment back over my shoulders, bringing my sleeves back down to cover my hands. “You were such a good girl for Daddy weren’t you Bunny?” Leigh asked, rubbing circles into my thighs. His hands radiated heat sending delicious waves of need up and down my spine. I shivered at the sensation.

“Yes Daddy.” I replied automatically, keeping my eyes closed, languishing in the attention. I was a sucker for aftercare.

“And good girls deserve treats right?” He said, now tracing his hands up my sides, inside my pajamas, taking advantage of the fact that they were still open to feel my skin.

“Hmmyes Daddy.” I mewled. “I was very good, good girls get treats.” He placed one large hand in the center of my chest and pushed me back, leaving my legs dangling off the edge of the bed. I shuddered in anticipation, my core throbbing with heat. I was so wet I knew he could smell it as close as he was to me. I needed something-anything to happen. But I held still. I trusted Leigh to take care of me. He was my Daddy.

Leigh leaned down, placing both of his hands on my hips in preparation. “That’s right. Good girls,” He licked one long swipe along my slit, through my panties, causing me to cry out in pleasure, ”get treats.” He dove back down. Tonguing me, tasting my through my panties.

He kissed and nibbled his way up my inner thighs. Starting at my knees, he took his time as he worked his way up. Watching my face for every reaction, every shudder of pleasure and want as he breathed over my core.

Finally,  _ finally,  _ he moved in, working his tongue in circles against my bud, using the flat of his tongue to drink me in. I started chanting his name like a prayer as he worshipped my clit. Shrieking when he pulled my underwear aside to taste me better. He used his tongue to penetrate me and I saw stars. “Oh Fuck, Oh fuck fuck fuck! Daddyyy.” I threaded my hands into his hair, pulling him closer. “Daddy please!” I panted and moaned and sobbed my pleasure into the air as he worked me over. “D-Daddy I-I need-Please!”

“What do you need baby?” He purred, sliding one finger inside me as he leaned up to take in my expression. “Look at me little Bunny, tell me what you need.” When I didn’t respond immediately he pulled his finger back out. I keened at the loss of contact.

“Please I-I need to cum Daddy please! Please let me cum i’ll be a good girl I promise! Leigh please!” I couldn’t keep up with the game, my mind was hazy with need. I writhed on the bed, unable to fully move as Leigh kept his hands on my waist. Opening my eyes I leveled a teary gaze at Leigh, begging with my face and my mouth for him to let me finish. It was the sweetest of torture.

Leigh continued to watch me come undone, teasing my clit in slow circles, never letting me fully come down from the high, but keeping me from falling off the edge. I arched my back and tugged my hair, releasing a moan straight out of a porn video. It was low and guttural and filled with desperation. He finally,  _ finally _ took pity on me. He dove down, sucking on my clit as he filled me with three fingers. God I was so  _ full _ it was  _ so good _ . Drool came out of my mouth and I tugged at my hair, moaning wantonly at the feeling.

“You wanna cum baby?” He asked while still fingering me. “You wanna cum from my fingers and mouth? Cum for your Daddy? Ride my fucking fingers until you scream?” Fuck I couldn’t handle the overload, the dirty talk, his hands, he trailed more kisses up and down my thighs, watching me twich and squirm. “Cum baby Bunny. Cum for me. Cum for your Daddy!”

And I did. I came. Hard. I screamed his name and my mind went blank. He continued to move in and out of me, helping me ride out the pleasure, feeling me convulse around him. Leaving little bites to prolong my orgasm. I lost track of how long I was lost within my pleasure, but when I came to, Leigh was still there, massaging my legs, cooing sweet nothings as he waited for me to come back down to Earth.

“You did such a good job baby. Are you okay? Was it too much? What do you need?”

“Water.” I rasped, chuckling at the concern on his face at the sound. “It’s ok, my throat is just a little shot. It got quite a workout.” Leigh grinned as he stood to get me a glass of water. Normally I would have asked for anything other than water but desperate times call for desperate measures. He returned with a glass and helped me sit up before moving to grab his sweatpants from the bathroom. I wanted to take a picture of his ass when he bent over but unfortunately, I had no clue where my phone was. I yawned instead and sat my glass down on the nightstand. 

Flopping backwards i sighed in exhaustion. Leigh came back out from the bathroom and turned the lights off, climbing into the bed and pulling me under the blankets and spooning up behind me. He took advantage of the fact that my pajamas were still undone and slid his hands around my waist. I was too tired to care.

I closed my eyes before my brain went full neurotic and read too deeply into what just happened. With our luck, both of us would be careening into a panic attack as soon as we woke up in the morning anyways.

“Goodnight Leigh.”

“Night Bunny.” He breathed into the back of my neck. I waited for his breathing to even out before smiling to myself. This was okay right? Right. I drifted off feeling happier than I had in a long time.


	21. Chapter 21

Fuck. Fuckity Fuck. Fuck my life.

“No no I got it I can totally pick her up dude...Yeah the hotel is literally on my way to work. When? In an hour? Yeah let me shower and i’ll be on my way.” If I wasn’t currently suffering from a full blown panic attack and pacing around the room, I’d appreciate how Leigh sounded when he just woke up. His voice had a rough quality to it that traveled straight from my ears to my core. My currently gross with sex panties covered core. Ew.

I had woken up before him when his phone rang. Confused when The Last Unicorn started blasting throughout the room, I tried to sit up, only to be held down by an arm that was definitely not my own. I rolled over into a face full of chocolate curls and panicked, my groggy mind unable to process who the fuck was in my bed. And WHY WERE MY PAJAMAS OPEN?!

The head of curls grumbled and pulled me closer, burying his face against my neck before sighing in contentment. Suddenly everything that happened flashed into my head and I jerked backwards, falling off the edge of the bed. I had just enough time to close up my pajamas before Leigh’s phone started ringing again, and this time he reached over to pull it off the nightstand. 

Rubbing his eyes while answering the call not fully aware of his surroundings. I stood there with wide eyes, waiting for him to notice that he wasn’t in his own bedroom. When that didn’t happen in a timely manner I walked over and handed him his glasses. He must’ve taken out his contacts at some point last night. When he took them from my hand and focused through them he finally understood just where he had slept last night, and everything that had transpired. His eyes grew wide with panic and I gestured for him to be quiet before he alerted who I could only assume was Arin on the other end of the phone.

After he finished his conversation, promising to “pick me up” from my hotel he hung up the phone and we both stared in silence at each other. Finally after a few minutes he stood up and slowly walked over to me. I had fallen onto the couch at some point and flinched back at the sudden movement. “Do we…” he began, “D-do we need to talk about this?” Sitting down as carefully as he could next to me, he made sure to give me distance.

“I-I mean, do you want to talk about it?” I asked, stuttering as I tried to calm down. “Because yeah we can talk about it. I-if you want to. If you don’t want to we can pretend it didn’t happen too. Cuz either is fine with me.” I was babbling now, trying to fully process the fact that I had drunkenly molested someone the night before. I started tugging my hair under my hood. Looking for something to anchor myself before I had another panic attack.

“Okay.” Leigh sighed, turning to face me. I cringed, waiting for him to reject everything. To call it all a mistake that happened when booze was involved. Calling me sick for taking advantage of him. My mind started playing various scenarios on repeat. All of them ending with restraining orders and me being sent home early, blocked from ever interacting with the Grumps ever again. “Laura. I need you to breathe. I don’t know where your inhaler is, and if you pass out on me I can’t really explain that one to the rest of the group.” I took a shuddering gasp of air. “Look, we were both really drunk last night, and things happened. I can acknowledge that.”

I nodded in confirmation, my slightly damp underwear all the proof I needed that yesterday wasn’t some kind of drunken wet dream.

“But, I don’t regret it, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He finished, patting me on the head and stretching his shoulders. I tried not to get distracted at the sight of him shirtless, small red marks from where I had dug my nails into his shoulders standing in stark contrast to his pale skin.

“Y-you don’t think I took advantage of you?” I asked in a small voice.

Leigh smiled sheepishly. “If I remember correctly, I was the one taking advantage of  _ you _ .” I laughed at the implication. “That’s what you were worried about? I’m almost twice your age and you’ve only met me in person five days ago, and you thought I was being taken advantage of. You’re something else.” He didn’t push any further though. Understanding that I had been known to blame myself for everything. He shook his head at my pouting face and held his hand out.

“Where are we going?” I asked, already grasping at the offered help. My legs were a little stiff.

“Well I don’t know about you,” he began, pointedly looking at the area between my legs, hidden by the purple and white snaps of my onesie, “But I need a shower. I feel gross. I figured you needed help washing your hair and we could kill two birds with one stone.”


	22. Chapter 22

“Those poor birds.” I muttered absentmindedly. Leigh paused on his way to the bathroom. Staring at me in confusion before breaking out into laughter. I smiled at the way his eyes squinted in mirth, his abs flexing as he curled in on himself. Trying to contain the sound so we didn’t disturb the room next door. 

I rolled my eyes and poked him in his side, stepping into the bathroom and turning on the shower. I placed my phone on the counter. The volume blasting music throughout the small space. Leigh looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “What sounds are you planning to try and drown out with Linkin Park Bunny?” I shivered but laughed at the implication.

“I just don’t like silent showers dude. It’s a habit don’t judge me! But if you’re offering…” I trailed off as I started undoing my clothes. The snaps showing inches of skin and I popped them open one by one. Leigh’s eyes followed my hands, his eyes darkening as he strode forwards. “Ah, ah, ah!” I stepped back out of his reach. Turning to fully undress, bending over to pull down my underwear, I smiled at the groan he let out from behind me, I stayed bent over a little longer before stepping into the shower. I stood under the spray and Leigh followed the paths the water made on my skin. “You were in charge last night...Daddy.” He growled. “But now it’s my turn. Strip and come here.”

He immediately pulled off his sweatpants and stood in front of me, the water dampening his hair and making it stick to his head. “Good boy.” I purred, proud of him for waiting to touch me. “You’re good at listening.” I grabbed the soap and started lathering him up. Running my hands along his chest. He whined and put his hands on my waits to steady himself when I grazed his nipples with my nails. “Are you sensitive there Daddy?” I asked, using the nickname he chose for himself. Turning it into a pet name gave me a thrill of power. Leigh nodded but stayed still, letting me explore. 

I continued my path down, scratching his hip bones where they stuck out, and he giggled at the feeling. The laughter turning into a gasp when I dug my nails in, leaving small indents in his skin. “You like that Daddy? You want to feel my nails in your skin? Is it a good pain.” He groaned in my ear, squeezing my hips tighter in his hands. “Use your words Daddy. If you’re a good boy I’ll reward you.” I bit into his shoulder, just hard enough for him to feel a tinge of pain. He shuddered against me.

“Yesss Bunny. It’s so good.” He panted, and I could feel his erection against my stomach. “Can I touch you more? Please?”

“Such a good boy. “ I smiled up at him, a mix of sin and sugar. My eyes dark with excitement at the amount of control I had over this man. “You can touch, just a little though. If you get carried away I’ll stop.” Leigh immediately reached for my ass, grabbing handfuls and growling at the feeling. I hummed in approval. 

Grabbing more soap, I reached down, ready to reward such good behavior. I wrapped both of my hands around his hard member. Moaning at the heat that radiated from it. My hands slick with soap I pumped him slowly, relishing in the sounds he released as he tilted his head back. We turned so he could lean against the shower wall. “Bunny...Fuck, it’s so good!” He started bucking into my hands, losing himself. He reached up and carded his hand into his hair, tugging harshly, biting his lip to hold in his cries.

I sped up, voicing encouragement, telling him how good a boy he was, how much I loved jerking him off, watching him come undone. I leaned forwards, licking his nipple, reaching around to dig my nails into his back. He arched against the wall at the feeling, his cries getting higher. I felt him throb in my hand. “Daddy. Look at me.” He kept his eyes closed. I dug my nails deeper, biting down on a hard bud. He flung his eyes open, hissing at the feeling. “I want you to look at me when you cum Daddy. I want to see it on your face as you cum for me. Can you do that? Can you cum for me?” I reached up and yanked on his hair, bringing his head down to look at me.

“Yes baby! Yes I’ll look! I’ll-ngh-I’ll look! I’ll look. B-Please I-” He started thrusting his hips into my hand. Urging me to go faster, his hands scrabbling to find purchase against the slippery tile. I smiled and leaned up to nibble on his collarbone as I sped up, twisting and pulling, squeezing and swiping my thumb against his tip. I leaned back and watched him, ready to feel him pulse in my hand.

“Cum Leigh. Cum for me. Let me see it!”

He moaned out loud as he came. Making sure to keep his eyes on me as ribbons of hot liquid covered my hand and stomach. I smiled as I continued to pump him through his orgasm. Purring in approval as his eyes drooped in the afterglow. “Look at that blush. “ I crooned, slowing my movements before releasing him, pushing him back under the spray before he got too cold. “So pretty. Such a pretty boy. You did so good for me.” I continued to praise him as I washed him off, removing all traces of his release and soap. He hummed in approval allowing me to do as I pleased. “There you go, all clean.” I smiled up at him as he opened his eyes. “Did you like your treat?” 

He smiled and laughed at the eager look on my face. “Why do I feel like you enjoyed that almost as much as I did?” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” I responded, feigning innocence. He rolled his eyes and huffed, leaning down to get his own handful of soap.

He started blushing again as he looked up and down at my body. His earlier confidence gone with the absence of alcohol in his system. “D-do you want me to take care of you or…” 

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hands, leading them to my body. “Honestly? As much as I did enjoy jerking you off, I’m okay. I felt like being nice.” I spoke conversationally as I guided his hands across my skin, letting him pause and squeeze when he wanted. “Besides, I don’t hide my blissed out face very well. Everyone in the office would know something was up.” He laughed distractedly as I turned around, eyes glued to my ass, grumbling his appreciation as he ran his hands along my spine before cupping each cheek.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I breathed. “Besides I had a thought.” I announced in a more serious tone, snapping him out of his daze. “You didn’t bring a spare change of clothes did you?”

“Oh I totally did. It’s in my bag.”

“You said last night you didn’t have another shirt to wear!” I exclaimed in mock annoyance, turning to face him. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“ I lied.”

It took me a moment to focus on what he said. “...LEIGH!” Laughter echoed from the bathroom.


	23. Chapter 23

“Laura.”

“Yeah Suzy?” I asked from where I was lounging on the couch. Today the Grumps had a meeting so Suzy and I were waiting in the wet bar area until they finished. 

“Why is there a giant ass, heavy as fuck package with my name on it and the words ‘From Laura’ scrawled in purple crayon across the top?”

I bolted up with excitement! “Woah they actually did it!?! I thought they would ignore that special note for sure!” I bounded over to the box, helping her drag it awkwardly across the floor. 

“Why are you having things sent to our office space!? How did you even get our address!?” I knew she wasn’t mad, just really confused. What had happened was, I asked Arin for it my first day here when Suzy wasn’t looking. He’s the only one who knew of my plan.

“All I can say is, I got permission and no, there is no leak that shows where everyone works or lives. Now are you going to open this box or do I have to somehow shove it into my carry on luggage?” I asked, handing her a pair of scissors I stole off of someone’s desk.

“Who are we shoving into carry on luggage?” Arin asked, walking in to the room. “Holy shit Laura I didn’t know it was going to be  _ that  _ big.” His eyes widened as he headed towards the other couch where Suzy sat, smirking at the crayon scribbled words. “This is a nice touch by the way. How’d you get them to do that?”

“YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS!?” Suzy asked in surprise.

“Of course I knew babe, how else would she have gotten our address?”

“Ok, that actually makes sense.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks babe.”

Once the PDA was finished I launched into a brief explanation of the crayon and the fact that Suzy was the soul of the operation and should have been given the best present to show my gratitude and appreciation. That, and I was scrolling Amazon and saw it and immediately thought of her. As I was talking, Leigh, Ninja Brian, and the rest of the gang filed in to the bar area. Taking up stools, chairs, and floor space. 

Of course the two NSP band members sat on each side of me, Leigh slightly closer to where I could feel his body heat, but not too close to where it gave anything away. Brian immediately handed me a box of Oreos and gave me a head pat, listening to my story.

“...so yeah! Open it! It’s my last day here so the timing worked out really well.” I could tell Leigh wanted to say something in response but held himself back after a look from Arin. Weird. What was that about? He settled for bumping my leg with his.

Brandishing the scissors like a pro, Suzy cut open the box and pulled out a mass of cream and white wrapped in clear plastic. “W-what the hell is that thing?” Ross asked from a bar stool.

Suzy stood up to better remove the plastic. I leaned back to admire my work. Standing at a strong four feet was a giant, stuffed, lamb.”OHMYGOD LAURA WHAT!”

“Holy...shit.” Ross breathed before bursting into giggles. “I didn’t even know you could get one that big!”

Arin smiled gleefully as Suzy jumped up and down, squeezing the non-existent life out of her new present. “Laura, this is amazing. I can’t believe you found this, how much was it?”

“Not tellingggg!” I sang as I stood up so Suzy could hug me. We had to talk loud over the repeated ‘thank yous’ and the laughter from the rest of the group as Suzy walked around, parading the lamb like in the nursery rhyme. “Hey Arin, now that I think about it, how are you two going to fit it in your Mini? It’s kinda ginormous.”

“Ah, we’ll figure it out later on.” He answered dismissively, “Actually, we kinda want to talk to you since it’s your last day and all.” With his words the rest of the excitement died down as everyone’s attention turned towards the current conversation.

“U-um okay? Did I do something wrong?” I could feel Leigh vibrating with excitement next to me.”I’m really sorry I got sick the other day and missed the pajama party. I really wanted to go too.”

“No no its ok! I didn’t make it either to be honest.” Leigh interrupted. Mirth in his eyes as he threw in his excuse. Knowing full well that I caught him on his bullshit and no one else did. “That’s not what we wanted to talk to you about. Arin?”

“Geez. Ok here goes,” He leaned forwards with a serious look on his face. “So we know that you’ve got to go to school and you live with your roommates, and you work two jobs to pay for everything.” He began slowly, like talking to a skittish animal. 

“Yeah? What about it?” I asked defensively. Brian put his hand on my head to try and keep me calm.

“W-well, we wanted to give you the opportunity to change that up a little bit. We still want you to go to school, and we think it’s amazing how far you’ve come on your own but we, and I really do mean all of us, just think that you’re so young. Too young to have to dedicate all of your time to just work and school. Getting chosen to come out here should have been a  _ super big deal _ you know? Not because of how awesome we are, but it’s a free vacation, you shouldn't have to go into a panic attack trying to figure out how to fit in into your schedule.”

I stared at him in confusion. “I mean…” I started, trying to keep my temper out of my voice.” It’s not like it isn’t normal to be concerned about how vacations are going to fit into your life. It’s not like I had a year to plan it…”

“No, no we know,” Suzy explained. “It’s more like, we want you to have more free time and still be able to pay for everything you need to take care of. We want to lighten your load but still help you accomplish your goals.”

“Laura, you don’t have to sacrifice your happiness for your goals in life. Otherwise are they  _ really  _ goals?” Danny explained. Knowing the metaphor would make the most sense to me.

“So, what are you saying? Am I going to get a Game Grumps check in the mail every month?”

It was a poor attempt at humor but Arin laughed anyways. “Nah dude, we want to offer you a job here.” He said it so nonchalantly, like he was asking everyone what they wanted to have for lunch. “We can figure out how much it would cost for food and school out here, give you some time to get things in order on your end, and then when the time is right you can move down and stay with one of us until you find a place to stay that you’re comfortable with.”

“So let me get this straight.” I started, leaning forwards and shrugging away Brian’s hand on my head. ”You want me to pack up my life, tell my roommates bye I found some strangers i’ve only known for a week and they want me to move in with them, transfer schools again, and come work for you guys as what? A personal assistant?” I could feel my temper getting out of hand and I strained to keep it under control. “No offense everyone but I don’t know you. I know everything you’ve voluntarily provided on all your YouTube videos and social media accounts, I know  _ now _ where the Grump Space is which is really cool, but I don’t know what you guys are like in your free time, off camera L-Danny could be an asshole. I mean shit Arin, what if I turned out to be a mass murderer and you just invited me to your house, your personal life, counted on me, a 22 year old with the maturity level of a stuffed lamb, to help keep all of  _ your _ lives in order?  _ Do you even know why my family doesn’t talk to me anymore? _ ” I was standing at this point. I was pissed. “I didn’t even find out until the other day that you owned more than one company! My whole entire life has been filled with empty promises and fake people and  _ you, _ ” I snapped, turning to Leigh who flinched back at my fury, “at least should have known that! What makes you all better than my father who put me in severe financial debt? What makes you all better than my Mother who mentally abused me into not having friends? What makes you all better than everyone else who knew about my life and decided it was  _ too hard  _ to help me because it made them uncomfortable?”

I bent over to grab my bag and my phone, the Oreos unopened and forgotten in the spot where I sat. I refused to look at anyone as I strode towards the door. “Thank you for the offer, “ I spoke without turning around. I couldn’t meet any of their faces. “But i’m going to have to decline. I’ll catch an Uber back to hotel. I had a lot of fun guys, but I don’t trust any of you enough to put my livelihood in your hands. Not like that.” I threw my bag over my shoulder and walked out the door, telling myself the tears in my eyes were from the sunlight and nothing more.


	24. Chapter 24

“So what it sounds like is you don’t want to jump without a safety net on the bottom right?” V asked from her end of the call. I was sitting at the airport, stoned out of my mind, trying to retell what happened to the only person who knew everything about me. My best friend V.

“Well fuckin’ yes I do want to make the jump, I just...After the Jeremiah incident and the Omari incident and the TJ incident it just...i’m just tired of putting my trust in all these people who say they want to be my friend and, be there to support me and then when things get shitty or they don’t get what they want i’m alone. Again. But this time it would be in a new state where let me tell you the cost of living is retardedly high, and I would have no one out there to help me.” I groaned into my AirPods. “And things were getting so good too! Why can’t people just not be shitty?”

V laughed at my dramatic admonishment of humanity. “That’s just the way things are pookums. Are you ready for my honest opinion now?” The high was wearing off so paying attention was a little easier. I checked the time. 

“Sure, but make it fast, my plane is going to start boarding in like, ten minutes.”

“Okay cool. I think you’re an idiot.”

“Wut. V you’re supposed to support me on my endeavors here remember?”

“ I am supporting you! But I think you’re an idiot. I think that this was some idea that everyone there had been ruminating over since they met you and you should just say fuck it and do it.” I stared incredulously at my phone, temporarily forgetting that she couldn’t see my face. “I mean come on Laura. Leigh Daniel Avidan.  _ The _ Leigh Daniel Avidan let you suck his dick, he cleaned your plate, and had a tear fest on your shoulder in the course of three days. He was there while you relapsed, helped you come up with an excuse for the rest of the group to buy,  _ and _ knowing him, he’s the one who proposed the idea in the first place! He  _ likes _ you! He wants you to stay with him and this is the only way he knows how to justify it!” 

“W-well what about Jared? He’d never go for it.”

“It sounds like it’s about time for you to tell him to let you do what you want or fuck off. I get that he’s been helping you make the right decisions so you can be a ‘baller’ or whatever but, if these guys are trying to give you more free time  _ and _ pay you more then....I would consider this a win in my book.”

“He’s going to say it’s because of a guy again. And blame my poor taste in men. And that he could do way better than any of them. Not to mention there is a guy and he’s FUCKING FORTY.” I looked around at the glares I knew I was getting for cursing so loudly. I didn’t really care, but I was about to be on a plane with these people. God knows who I was going to sit next to.

“Okay I mean...that part is more than a little concerning. But-”

“Shit V I have to go. The plane is starting to board we can talk more about this later. Love you wifey!”

“Love you too byyyyyeee!”

  
  
  


I made my way to my seat, thankful that I only had to sit next to one person instead of two. I settled in, pulling out my iPad so I could at least play Minecraft during the flight. My AirPods were already in so I didn’t hear the person speaking to me until it they tapped on my shoulder.

I looked up and jolted in shock. “Leigh what are you doing here?!” I demanded, pulling out an earbud so I wasn’t yelling. “Shouldn’t you be at the office?”

“Actually,” he began sheepishly, “I took some time off. We all kinda...needed a break after this morning.” I looked down in shame. “Not that you were wrong or anything!” He added quickly, seeing my face. “It was more along the lines of we were all pretty shocked. It’s not every day we get turned down as narcissistic as that sounds.” He put his backpack up top and sat down next to me, raising the arm rest to better stretch out his legs. 

“If you’re going to take a break, why are you here instead of on some other plane?”

Leigh pulled his hair out of his pony tail and shook it out. “Well I wanted to talk to you personally. You didn’t really see my messages and I wanted to explain myself before…” He hesitated, “before you thought that what happened these past few days was just a...I dunno. Before you ended up regretting it I guess.”

I looked at him skeptically, subconsciously moving my legs more towards the window so he could stretch out further. He really wasn’t built for planes. Leigh smiled at the gesture his nervousness not subtle in any way, as he started playing with his hair.

“Look dude, I didn’t really combine the two situations together if that’s what you’re implying.” I kept looking down at my game as I spoke. “What happened then was then and what happened this morning was this morning. I am more than capable of having a fling and then letting it go. It's happened before.”

“But what if I don’t want it to be just a fling?” He leaned forwards, taking my iPad out of my hands and closing it. “What if I liked what happened and want it to happen again?” I looked up at him, holding my breath.

“What, like a long distance, friends with benefits kind of thing?” I was slightly annoyed that he took something out of my hands but, then he reached into the bag I didn’t realize he still held on to and handed me a box of Dots. “Thanks.”

“No problem. And no I don’t mean a friends with benefits kind of thing. And hopefully...not long distance.”

“I already told-”

“ I know what you said and that’s not what I meant either.” He interrupted. “I told you. I’m taking a break.”

“Leigh, you can’t just drop Game Grumps on a whim to be with me. I can’t even provide a place for you to stay. What will the rest of the Grumps think? What will Brian think?” I looked at him like he had grown a second head out of his mane of hair. “Besides, I don’t really have the time, you haven’t met my roommates, they take up what little attention I have I-” 

“Hey, hey Laura breathe. You forgot to breathe again. Everyone says this is I know, and believe me it’s going to take me a long ass time to prove it but i’m okay with you taking your time. I-i just wanted you to know that-to know that I want you! I-I guess.” He grabbed my hands with his own and smiled.

I raised my eyebrow at him. “You...guess. Have you even told anyone yet? Have you even fully thought this through? Even if I did end up working for Arin and the rest of you, that’s a relationship between an employee and their boss. And I'm barely more than half your age Leigh. What does that mean regarding our future?”

He smirked down at me. “Oh so you’re already thinking about our future I see.” I smacked him on the arm. “Ow, sorry sorry I couldn’t help it. Listen. Listen!” He grabbed my arms and pulled me into an awkward hug so I couldn’t hit him anymore. “Bunny, did you honestly think I could leave the office to chase after you without telling anyone? Brian already knew and threatened my life, Arin laughed in my face and said you had a thing for old geezers, and Suzy said vile, terrible, horrible things about what she would do to my vital organs if I fucked up somehow.”

“Leigh, I-I can’t make a decision on this right now. There’s no safety net and I tend to make bad choices under pressure. I just, I do want to be with you, and I do want everything to work, but I- but it’s really hard for me to just drop a routine like this.” Everything that I did was “safe.” Work was safe, school was safe, living with Jared and his girlfriend was safe. Giving all of that up after a week-long vacation? Not safe. Not in the slightest. I tried to portray all of these thoughts with just my eyes. Willing Leigh to see from my point of view.

“I understand baby. I just want you to know that whatever you choose is your choice. Not Jared’s, or V’s, not anyone else’s. Just yours. You can take as much time as you need. We can give it a week, or a month. It’ll give you time to talk to your roommates, and get used to the idea of being with me.” He smiled softly down at me, the plane at cruising altitude since we somehow managed to talk through takeoff. “Let’s play Minecraft to get your mind off of things, and we can talk more when we get there okay?” He handed me my iPad back and pulled out his own. “Can I get an invite to your realm or do you want to play on mine?”

“You have a realm?” I asked, picking up my tablet and setting up the fold out table so I could rest my arms. “We should probably use yours. Jason can see who’s been invited and I really don’t want your first introduction to be through a video game.” I leaned over to slouch against him, the position only looking awkward. As we settled in for the flight I tried not to think about the confrontation that waited for me when I landed.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, Sorry about the delay with uploading. It suppose it's quite frightening to go from four chapters every week to one every once in a while. I promise more will come soon, I just hit the terrible wall that is writer's block. I'm sure you can tell with the quality of these last few chapters. Rest assured, I have big plans for Laura, Leigh and the rest of the Grumps so bear with me, and keep reading!

**You okay Bun?**

**Are you having me followed? How’d you know I was standing outside my door right now? Creeper**

**U Creepy**

**Nah I figured u were nervous lol**

**Do u need me to do it with you**

**We practiced and everything**

**Nah**

**I just**

**I'm scared Leigh**

**Really scared**

**Bunny**

**Laura**

**We discussed this**

**If the worst case scenario happens I’ll come get you. I promise.**

**Okay**

**Doesn’t mean im not scared tho**

**I’m right here**

**Be tough**

I knew he couldn’t see it, but I smiled down at my phone anyways. Leigh and I had talked more about what we would do at his hotel room. He made sure I had the address written down and his cell phone number just in case. He kinda got the gist that my roomies were a little...volatile and tended to make rash decisions when things don't go their way.

Don’t get me wrong, I love them and appreciate everything they’ve done for me, and I made sure Leigh knew that, but I had a rough history with Jared and it made confrontation with him difficult.  _ Well, no time like the present to get kicked out of house and home. Be tough Laura. This is what makes you happy. You’re happy.  _

With shaking hands I unlocked the door. The piece of paper with Leigh’s phone number a comforting warmth in my pocket, even if it was only my imagination.

“I’m back!”

Both of my roommates were sitting on the couch when I walked in. I really wished I could’ve hidden in my room but...no dice.

“Hey Laura.” Serena said, not looking up from whatever she was knitting. That was normal.

“Sup dude. How was your week of being sneaky?” I internally flinched at Jared’s choice of words. He was probably joking, as one does, but...old wounds and all that. 

“I wasn’t being sneaky Jared. You knew where I was and I kept you updated. I even sent you a link to the channel on YouTube so you could see me! Did you look at it?”  _ Of course you didn’t _ I thought to myself.

“No, I don’t really YouTube Laura, you know that.” Jared stated dismissively without looking up from his phone. “Hey, since you’re up, can I have a glass of milk?”

“I just walked in, and you want me to get you a glass of milk.” I tried to hold in my temper. Knowing that giving an attitude would only make things worse. “Sure Jared. Let me put my things down first.” Serena was silent, watching me, knowing that something was up. She always knew. She called it her sixth sense or something. I just figured I wasn’t hiding the expression of anxiety on my face very well.

Once everyone was settled in, and I brought my Snorlax downstairs to flop on since there was no space on the couch Serena finally asked the groundbreaking question. “So, how  _ was _ your trip? You’ve barely said anything about it. Oh, and you got a package in the mail. I went ahead and put it in your room. It was pretty heavy, what did you get?”

I was so nervous with what was about to happen I didn’t pick up on the last thing she said.

“A-actually, “ I stuttered, trying to calm my heart rate down, “ It was amazing. I forgot how much I loved the non-touristy parts of California. And the Game Grumps team is wonderful. “  _ Here goes… _ “T-they um, offered me a job. I-if I wanted it.” The responding silence was agony to say the least. I thought of Leigh’s phone number in my pocket and turned to face my roommates. “They said, u-um, they said that it was ridiculous how hard I was working for how little I was making and wanted to help.”

“So what you mean like you edit videos for them in your free time and send them over? Or what?” Serena asked, skepticism in her voice. Jared was still quiet but I knew he was listening.

“Uh, no actually it was a personal assistant position. They contract out to a lot of bands and I’d be the organizer for NSP’s tours and hotel stays and whatnot.”

“That sounds like a lot of work for your spare time Laura. “ Jared finally spoke up, still not looking up from his phone though. It irked me how often he was on there, like he was too good for the real world. Of course, I knew he was fully aware of what was going on around him, but I wished I had his undivided attention more often.

“W-well. It is. It wouldn’t be a spare time thing. They want me to work for them in California. As in, move and transfer schools.” Jared looked up from his phone at that point. His face unreadable. Serena laughed. “Don’t laugh! I was really flattered.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re flattered, do you have any idea what you’re signing up for? What about school down here? Your secure two jobs, one of which is full time, and school?” Serena began, her brows furrowed in confusion. “So you’re just going to drop all of that? And leave us too?” Her voice was eerily calm. It’s how we always knew when she was angry. And disappointed.

“Come on Serena, you know she’s fine with giving up all of that. She doesn’t care. This is just another instance where she chooses to do something and changes her mind again. Whatever.” Jared immediately tried to shut down the conversation, going back to scrolling on his phone.

“Okay, first of all, I didn’t agree to anything yet so thanks for automatically assuming I made a decision.” I could feel my anger burning behind my eyes. “And secondly, you said that if there was an opportunity for me to be a baller I should take it as long as it was secure, well paying, and I didn’t have to work too hard.”

“Yeah, well again, this is some kind of Youtube job right? Meaning it’s going to go down the drain in another couple of years and once again you’ll be out of a job.” Jared snapped back. “And do you have any idea how expensive it is to live down there? I mean Serena’s boss is practically living paycheck to paycheck and that’s just for a one story house!”

“I know that!” I grumbled. “But this job isn’t a Youtube thing, it’s a touring thing. I wouldn’t really have anything to do with that branch of the company. Meaning so long as there’s bands interested in personal assistants through Game Grumps, I'm set. And finally, I am fully aware of how much it costs to live out there. Arin and his wife Suzy said I could stay with them until I finished school and I could decide if I wanted to stay out there or do something else with my degree.”

“It sounds like,” Serena interjected before Jared and I could start yelling at each other, “It sounds like you found another version of us in another state. Another version of us that you suddenly want to live with because...they pay more?”

“It sounds like she doesn’t fucking care about loyalty and would rather jump on the next big thing instead of being fine with where she’s at which is  _ working _ .” Jared emphasized.

“ _ Again _ for the audience in the back,” I started, standing up to make sure I had both of their attention, “I did not make a decision yet. I would have thought that my  _ friends _ would be more interested in my  _ success _ . Loyalty is standing by what’s best for everyone, and if I found a good opportunity with  _ even more _ people who are willing to be even half as decent as you two are -  _ were _ , “ I threw in hoping they’d flinch. They did not, “ we’d actually have an adult conversation about whether or not it made sense!  _ Instead _ we are taking pot shots at me, and people you’ve never even met!” I picked up my bean bag and stormed upstairs. Pausing at the last step I turned and yelled: “And by the way, Arin is worth $4.2 million, and the lead singer of NSP  _ who I would be working for _ is worth $14.3! How’s that for successful?!”


	26. Chapter 26

I barged into my room. Angrily throwing Snorlax into a corner before launching myself onto my bed. I narrowly missed the giant box taking up more than half of my King sized mattress. “What the fuck is this?” I dimly remembered Serena mentioning that I had received a package in the mail. Momentarily ignoring the box I pulled out my phone to text Leigh, knowing he was waiting to hear how my first encounter with my roommates had gone.

**You there Starman?**

**Starman? Lol dork**

**STFU you only wear a star as an icon, I thought it was fitting**

**At least you aren’t a bunny rabbit**

**Nah its cool I like it**

**How’d it go?**

I rolled over on to my stomach for fear of dropping my phone onto my face. It’s happened before and I had a hard case this time. Last thing I needed was a nosebleed.

**As shitty as I told you it would be. Thank God I haven’t technically made a decision yet.**

**Sorry. That came out wrong and insensitive.**

**I’m trying I swear**

**You’re fine bun**

**Take as much time as you need and feel free to ask for help**

**We’re all here for you, not just me**

I smiled down at my screen, heart warming at the support from these people who have chosen to pretty much adopt me. I pushed down the anxiety trying to whisper dark thoughts into my head. I was happy with all of them. With Leigh.

**Hey**

**Ya?**

**Did you get a package in the mail? **

I looked over at the giant box laying on my bed. Immediately suspicious, I sit up facing the giant box before me.

**…**

**Yes**

**Creeper**

**I'm not being creepy!**

**I just...might have sent you something?**

**I wasn’t sure if it had made it in time is all**

**Open it!**

**How do you even know its the box you sent?**

**Why the fuck did you send me something anyways**

I leaned over to grab one of the many box cutters I had hidden around my room. The constant easily accessible protection shaves off a couple layers of my paranoia. Don’t judge me. With the expertise of someone who knew their way around box cutter, I carefully sliced open the tape and lifted the panels.

**WELL?!?**

I reached over and grabbed my phone.

**JEESUS CHRIST HOMIE I HAVENT OPENED THE FLAPS YET**

**LET ME**

**OPEN**

**THE FLAPS**

**Oh my GOD OPEN It**

**I’m TRYING**

Throwing my phone to the side and silencing my giggles I reached for the box again. Peeling back the panels and removing the protective bubble wrap I unearthed two of the most beautiful six string bass guitars I had ever seen. Reaching down I reverently stroked the wood grain on the first guitar, it was the same exact design that I had been eyeing for months now. Too poor to afford ordering it off the website. The gorgeous wood grain fading to gray around the edges of the body, continuing up the neck, the gloss untouched by fingerprints. I traced each string as one would a lover. Immediately falling in love with the instrument, I glance over at the second guitar. Nestled next to the first was a royal blue six string bass guitar that I immediately recognized as the same model as the one Leigh played in NSP. The only difference being the number of strings, the bass was a thing of beauty. It looked like a jolly rancher had teamed up with G & L to make a candy coated masterpiece. Looking down towards the buttons I found a Danny Sexbang signature which made me giggle. Pulling out my phone I sent him a message.

**You just had to sign it didn’t you**

**Hey! One’s for practice and one is to remember me by**

**In case anything happens**

I took a moment to respond. Momentarily overwhelmed with sadness at the thought of no longer having Leigh or any of the other Grumps in my life. Making a decision, I took a deep breath, hoping that for once in my life my bad luck would stay locked in its cage. Pulling out my AirPods I dialed his number.

“Hey Bun!” Leigh answered. His voice soothing the last of the anger out of my system.

“Hey Leigh.” I responded. “I just wanted to say thank you...for the bass guitars. These must have been so expensive!”

“No problem! Honestly it was a group effort from all of us. We really appreciated the thought you put into each of our gifts and Suzy remembered how you wanted to learn how to play bass, so I figured what the hell. They wanted to give them to you as welcome to the team gifts but…” I knew he didn’t want to finish the sentence. Afraid to speak a bad end into existence. “Laura, I just want you to know that either now or five, ten, twenty years in the future, I'd still make you the same offer we made after just one week of meeting you. You’re so special and we really just want you to be happy and successful in life.”

I smiled at how heartfelt and genuine he sounded, knowing he was pacing and tugging on his hair in nervousness. “Leigh, I know. And that’s why I’m in.”

“Huh?”

“I’m in. Like I wanna work for Arin.”

“Really? Holy shit that’s so fucking great! I-”

“BUT- We, no I need to be up front with Jared. I have a really bad history with guys and I want to at least try and convince him that my decision is purely for me. No one else, no other influences. So I'm going to tell him about you.” I waited anxiously as the other line went silent. “Leigh?”

“Yeah, yeah i’m here. Never thought i’d be nervous over some guy half my age knowing about me. My god i’m getting old. What are you gonna tell him?”

“The truth to be honest. That I met a guy and I’m developing feelings for him, and that we’ve been talking. Probably leave out the part with the cleaning of plates and all that though.”

“Aww,” Leigh whined, “but that’s my favorite part of the story!”

“Shut up perv.” I laughed. “The goal is to make him accepting, not scar him for life or make him think I cheated on him.”

“I really don’t think it’s cheating if you guys fuck sometimes. From what I heard it’s more like convenient friends with benefits.”

“Can we not get in to the dynamics of the sick love trapezohedron I’m stuck in right now? Sheesh!” I exclaimed over his laughter in my ear. “Anyways, I have to go downstairs and explain the two expensive as fuck bass guitars I now have to put somewhere that my pets can’t get to. Text you in a bit? Try to have some fun okay? You’re in Texas baby! Everything is bigger down here! Even the drama.”

“Ha! You’re telling me. Honestly i’ll probably just take a nap. Good luck and you know to call me for anything right?”

“Yeah.”

“Good! Talk to you later. Bye Bun.”

“Bye Starman.” I sighed before looking back down at the gifts Leigh had sent me. I pulled the starburst grey into my lap, idly getting used to the weight of it, and smiling to myself.

“So who was that on the phone?”


	27. Chapter 27

Jared stood in my doorway, and I resisted the urge to flinch. I instinctively wanted to push my phone under my blanket, hoping he wouldn’t notice, but the promise I made to Leigh held me back. I would like to say that it was easy to look my roommate in the eye and admit I was talking to someone on the verge of romantically but...that would have been a lie. I was so used to pushing down any act that I had assumed would be met with disapproval to the point that lying about it became second nature. I knew that made me a horrible person with trust issues but...I was working on it.

“I know I heard you talking to someone Laura, and it couldn’t have been your Alexa. It doesn’t respond to Starman.” Jared strode further into the room, pushing the door shut behind him. Apparently the impending conversation wasn’t Serena friendly. I held back another flinch, trying to find words that would create a path of least resistance.

“W-well, yeah I was on the phone…” I stuttered out, stalling for time to find my confidence. Be brave Laura. Leigh and Arin and the rest of the gang are out there. Cheering for you! No matter what. 

“Did it have to do with that package you got in the mail? How’d you find the cash for those?”

“U-um they were a gift actually.” I replied, thankful for the slight subject change, even if it led back to the phone call. At least it gave me somewhere to start.

“A gift?” Jared responded incredulously. “Who would send you those?” He eyed me with suspicion. “Are you being sneaky? Do you have a sugar daddy we don’t know about?”

There was a light knock on the door. “Can I come in? Why’s there a private meeting in Laura’s room?” Serena asked from the other side before cracking the door open. “If you two are talking about Laura moving I wanna be involved too.”

I used Serena’s entrance as a chance to pull myself back together. If she was here I could be confident. For some reason Jared’s girlfriend was a natural buffer against his intense presence. It gave me a chance to breathe.

Serena stepped further in and looked towards my bed. “Wow, no wonder that box was so heavy! Where’d you get the money for that?” She took a closer look. “And look Jared, one of them has an autograph on it!” I slid the protective packaging back over the instruments defensively, not really comfortable with anyone else touching my gifts. Inwardly I rolled my eyes at my possessiveness. If Leigh was here he’d laugh in my face.

“Actually that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” I glanced towards Jared. “Both of you.” I emphasized. “I didn’t buy these, they were a gift. From the lead singer of Ninja Sex Party. Who I met. In California.” Both of my roommates raised their eyebrows. “I told him that I was interested in learning, and showed him the bass I had been looking at, and he sent them to me as a surprise. Since he pretty much co-owns Game Grumps, he was able to get my address without having to ask.” As I spoke I noticed Jared pulling out his phone and typing rapidly. I didn’t have to guess what he was doing.

He turned his phone around, showing a photo of Leigh in his usual blue leotard. “You mean this guy?” Serena looked over at the photo. “I guess you must have left a good impression, huh?” I didn’t like the tone he was taking and had to again, reign in my temper.

“I don’t really know what you’re implying, but yes, I think so. We all exchanged numbers and I got to know everyone really well. And I know it was only a week but they were all super cool and that’s why I decided I would finish up my degree out here and then move down there to work for a little while until I paid off my student loans.” Now that I had finally said it, I felt a major sense of relief? I think?

Jared and Serena sighed before looking at each other. “Laura,” Jared began, “I just have to ask. Is there some guy that’s convinced you to move? Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?” 

Serena nodded before speaking up. “We do want what’s best for you, and this is the epitome of jumping without your safety net Laura. At least she gave herself time to plan and save.” She finished, talking to Jared now. “Who knows, maybe she’ll change her mind.”

“Actually there’s something else I need to tell you guys.” I interrupted. I decided I would just bite the bullet then and there. No time like the present. Besides, I promised Leigh that I would tell them. _God I don’t want to tell them. Fuuuck. _


	28. Chapter 28

I find myself in times of confrontation looking back on what has led me up that point. I ask whether or not it was worth it. Was the guy worth it? The expensive item I had no reason to purchase worth it? Most of the time I think back and decide that they weren’t. Honestly, I never really think anything is worth the potential for argument, backlash, yelling, insults, the frustration, the anger, the misery of having to say goodbye to everything. So why become attached at all? To anything, really.

I think that’s why I have trust issues when I make decisions. No safety net meant potential for confrontation when something went wrong.

I preface this chapter dear readers, with this short glimpse into my thought process in the hopes that you all will keep an open mind regarding what is about to transpire. Remember the bonds that I have already made, and bear in mind that while incredibly blunt, Serena and Jared only want what is best for myself and themselves, and who they care for which is each other, and by extension, me. Having to grow up on our own without family to instill supportive mentalities into our brains results in a house and relationships floating above a massive lake of impending distrust. Who was going to take what we treasure? Plan for the inevitability of betrayal. Cut off the poisoned limb before it reaches the mind. Most importantly, protect yourself from getting hurt, and do what you can to survive.

* * *

“Are you, are you out of your fucking mind.” The question was phrased as a statement. Like Jared already knew the truth. “I knew it. I knew you shouldn’t have gone on that stupid fucking trip. On your own for one. Week. One week! And look at you, obsessing over some guy again.” Jared had started pacing outside the room. Incapable of standing still. Or looking me in the eye for that matter.

Serena remained silent. She had picked up one of our dogs and way busying herself by playing with her. Formulating thoughts in her head. Picking her words carefully. I remained seated on the bed. Taking in the scene, trying to remain calm and not immediately regret saying anything to anyone. Mentally preparing for the barrage I was about to endure.

“Laura,” Serena began cautiously, waiting for the joke to drop, waiting for me to somehow snap out of whatever was going on in my head. “You understand this guy is almost twice your age. Is this why you want to go to California? For this Danny Sexbang guy?”

Jared interrupted, barging back into the room before I could open my mouth. “Of course it fucking is Serena. Look at her, two gifts that if she could stop spending all her fucking money on bullshit she could afford on her own, and she's practically wound around his finger.” I leaned in front of the basses as he strode towards the bed.

“Leave them alone Jared, I didn’t ask him to get these for me, I was interested in the offer before I even knew they existed. And I don’t need to be chaperoned wherever I go. I’m 22 years old, I speak two languages other than English, and I was traveling outside the country before you even knew who I was.”

“Did you fuck him?” 

“What?” I asked, appalled at how blunt he was being. Especially in front of Serena who looked just as shocked as I felt.

“Did you. Fuck him. Did you fuck this 40 year old man who doesn’t know how to act his age? I bet he likes anime huh? One sentence and you’ll just screw anyone right? Apparently even age isn't a problem.” Jared left the room again, I could hear his footsteps as he stomped across the second floor.

“Jared that was uncalled for.” Serena began quietly, knowing Jared could hear her. “I think you need to apologize.”

“Yeah, let me apologize before she adds this to the list of shit she's told her little California friends to make them hate us. That’s probably why they want her to leave. She probably told them how ‘terrible’ we are and how we trap her here and she can’t leave.”

“We,” I interrupted calmly while looking down at my lap, “will continue this conversation once everyone has calmed down. I will not sit here and be shamed for the one instance in which I have chosen to share with you something personal. When everyone is capable of having a calm conversation that doesn’t consist of verbally brow beating me into submission, we can continue. Please leave my room.” Serena went to speak up, “Both of you.”

Without another word, Serena stood and dragged Jared out the room, closing the door behind her. I could hear Jared speaking in the hallway but I blocked it out, my feelings hurt and my nerves shot. I carefully set up the stands for Leigh’s and my bass guitars and set the instruments up in the corner of my room. Afterwards, I crawled into my bed with my phone and burrowed under the covers.

**Starman**

**Hey bunny**

**I just wanted you to know I tried telling them.   
It didn’t work out very well.**

**...r u ok?**   
**Do I need to get you?**

**No i’m not ok**   
**But i’m laying down**   
**I called time out**   
**I think i’m going to sleep for a little bit**

**You sure? We could go see a movie or grab dinner or something.**

**Tempting**   
**Would cause more harm than good**   
**Jus wanna sleep**

**Alright. Want me to wake you?**

**Yes please . I just need two hours.**

**Gotcha!**   
**One super sexy wake up call two hours from now comin up!**

**Thnx**

**No prob**   
**Night Bun**   
**Be careful please, and remember, i’m here**


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys it me, the Author here to apologize for being lame and not uploading for such a long time. I gotta admit, I’ve been going through some junk and I’ve been out of the country for a hot minute. As a present, please enjoy low levels of plot and larger levels of filler until I can decide how I’m going to further ruin this main character’s life….from Leigh’s side of the story! Ohmagawd!

Danny was also, not okay. Leigh. Leigh was not okay. He forgot Laura referred to him as that now. Like Doobles did. He smiled softly thinking of his mother. The thought of his family a welcome distraction. She’d love Laura and would try to fatten her up every chance she got. And honestly, with the way Laura ate, that would be quite the challenge. But it would be good for them both, they’d bond over food, coffee and probably baby pictures much to his embarrassment. 

He already knew that he’d be getting a serious talk before then though. About how young she was. Doobles would put him through the ringer whilst his father and sister distracted her in the front room. It would be a battle, but if Laura could deal with what he was now discovering to be the most overbearing roommates that ever existed, he could at least convince his family that he wasn't a cradle robber.

He sighed, flopping backwards into the hotel bed before pulling his phone back out. He needed advice, or a friend at least.

**Brian**

**Hey  
What’s up **

**Remember how we were talking about Laura’s roommates?**

**Yeah?**

**Well what we thought was happening is happening  
And I’m worried **

**Well we said if she backed out that we’d figure it out right?**

**No no not that  
Remember how we said her roommates were gonna be a little extreme  
Apparently that’s already happened**

**Oh no  
Is she okay?**

Leigh laughed to himself, even Brian was already adopting her as one of his own. She just had this ability to draw people in. Everything she did was thoughtful. Always tying in to someone else’s interests or needs. Her ability to pay attention to the smallest details after only seeing them once was insane, and she just thought nothing of it! She was cute , and wonderful, and they shared so many of the same interests. _Even_ _TWRP would love her. I really should have introduced all of them to her while she was in California. She’d love to meet them. They might have also given her tips for her bass guitar practice. Oh well. There’s always next time. Hopefully._

**Not particularly  
She’s taking a nap right now  
I really wish I could help her and I can’t think of how   
I almost wish she had just...not been super fucking awesome u kno?  
Then none of us would be going through the stress  
Was that harsh? I feel like that was harsh.**

**No, it’s not harsh, it’s just your lack of desire to deal with stressful things lol  
Glad you think she’s super fucking awesome though. That makes all of us  
And you gotta remember even though she’s young, she is still an adult  
This is as much of a test for her as for us  
We don’t really have anything to prove **

But Bri I just want things to go easily is all  
I just want her to be happy

It took a while before Brian replied. So long that Leigh had time to take a phone call from Arin. 

**“Hey man what’s up?”**

**“How is she? I tried texting her and she didn’t respond.”**

**“She’s takin a nap right now. I’m supposed to wake her up in a bit actually.”**

**“Is...everything ok?” **Leigh sighed knowing Arin picked up on it too. Laura had Clinical Depression. Stressful situations made her want to sleep. Arin had asked him about it after the impromptu sick day last week. It helped that both of them had their own depression to deal with. Luckily they both had really good therapists. Maybe I should suggest one for her. 

**“She’s napping for about two hours and then they’re going to try again. Hopefully once everyone has calmed down. She didn’t really tell me any details other than that.I just, I just wish I could help her man. This sucks.“** Leigh sat up, running his hands through his hair. He really just wanted to give her a hug and couldn’t and it was getting to him. He stood up and started pacing before coming to a stop in front of the window. He didn't tell Laura but he transferred to a different Hotel after she headed home. To the one she worked at. Yes, it was creepy but Leigh figured it would be a nice surprise when she went in to work. It gave them a chance to hang out too! If he didn’t pass out before then. 

He actually really liked how secluded it was from everything. And there was a small kitchenette he could use and dinner was included in the stay. All in all, not too bad. The only downside being he looked like a scruffy hobgoblin when he checked in and it seemed like only businessmen stayed here.

**“I know man, no offense though, 40 year old dude magically showing up to comfort his way younger girlfriend from her ‘psycho’ roommates isn’t the best first impression. We’d be lucky if they could even see past that to contemplate the job thing.”** Leigh could hear Arin sigh on the other end. **“Maybe, maybe you could help her though…”** Arin started rapidly clicking away on his laptop meaning he was still at the office.

Leigh was concerned about the tone Arin had taken. The one that would make him very uncomfortable. **“I’m not going to like what you’re planning am I?”**

**“Don’t worry about it Dan I got it! But I gotta go make some calls for a bit. Text me if anything changes with our girl okay? Byyyeee oh also Suzy says hi!” **And then he hung up the phone before Leigh could get another word out.

Leigh frowned before leaning over and setting up his laptop on the desk space, booting it up and connecting to the WiFi, he decided to get some work done. Well he tried to, he got distracted looking at things to see in Texas. Apparently there was even a huge renaissance festival out here! He and Laura could go as pirates or something. Or whatever she wanted to be really, as long as she had fun. And the zoo! Or they could go to Galveston and play in the water. Which would really be him convincing her to go in the water since she couldn’t swim. That thought led to one of Laura in various swimsuits which he quickly steered away from. _What am I a horny teenager? My inner Sexbang is pretty active lately. I blame Laura._

He sighed in exhaustion before looking at the time. _I guess I can take a shower and it should be time to wake her up by then. _

Leigh gathered up his clothes, trying not to think about the last time he and Laura were in the shower together. The last thing he needed was a boner during a pretty serious time in both of their lives.

_Well. _  
Too late.   
Grand. Cold shower it is. 


	30. Chapter 30

I woke up to Starlight Brigade. Leigh’s voice belting out words of encouragement and embracing destiny while surprising, helped the transition from soul sucking exhaustion to mind murdering wakefulness go a lot quicker. It took me a moment to realize where I was, the last week of either waking up in Leigh’s arms or in the hotel room bed alone still in my mind.  _ I miss him. _

When the song ended and picked up again I realized that I hadn’t left my music playing but Leigh was actually calling me. “Shit, fuck fuck fuck!” I scrambled for my night stand almost knocking everything over in the process. Throwing in an AirPod I answered the call. 

**“Leigh!”**

**“Yes it is I, your super sexy wake up call! Freshly showered, and incredibly hungry can we please go get food I’m starving.” ** I laughed at his antics. 

**“Umm, I have to check with my roommates, they might want to do something since I’ve been gone a week.”**

**“That’s fine!” ** He chirped through the phone.  **“I mean, you could always...invite them if you wanted…” ** I could hear his hesitation in his voice.  **“Or!” ** He interjected nervously,  **“We could reschedule for another time!”**

**“Leigh, we don’t have to if you’re not ready. Its not like they’re my parents anyways. Let me just see where everyone is. Besides we still have to finish...talking” ** I added on. 

**“You wanna tell me what happened? You kinda...fell asleep before you got the chance.” ** I could tell he was tip toeing around what had happened. I had a flare up like when I was in California. He knew it, I knew it, shit the rest of the Grumps probably knew it. 

So I told him how the conversation went from beginning to end. He stayed silent for most of it. Laughing angrily at the part about him and I having sex, knowing it was partially true but angry at the question itself. 

**“I really don’t think this guy understands how friends with benefits works.” ** Leigh said when I was finished.  **“At least Serena is trying to stay logical about everything. And you know, isn’t being shitty about your personal life. By the way I would just like to point out that you didn’t cry throughout that whole ordeal and when you were retelling me what happened and I’m super proud of you for that.” **

I laughed at his sudden change in direction.  **“Thank you Leigh, i’m really trying with this whole confidence thing. But hey was my decision okay? To finish up my degree out here and then head down? I just, because i’m an independent, I have to apply for this stupid BS independence thing every time I go to a new school until i’m 24 and it’s a pain in the ass. Also if my credits don’t transfer over, who knows how long it’ll take for me to graduate.”**

**“That’s totally okay Bunny. Do what you have to. It gives us time for us to get our things in order regardless.”**

**“No but I mean, the whole...us thing. Is that going to be okay? I have two years of school left. That’s...a long time to wait for someone.” ** I had run into this problem before. Some guy would come in and try to sweep me off my feet and tell me to run away with him. Promise that he’d wait only to change his mind because I didn’t put him first.

**“Laura, i’m barely 40. I’m not going to die any time soon. And if I’m not capable of allowing someone to accomplish their own goals just so I can have their undivided attention then I might as well give up my furry cape. If NSP can hold out while Brian is in London, I can handle you getting your degree. Besides, there’s always vacations and tours and whatnot. I don’t think any of the Grumps have adventured in Texas yet.” ** I could hear the amusement in Leigh’s voice. I really wanted to believe him, but I couldn’t. Not yet. I just hoped he would understand.  **“Are you okay with spending 2 years in a relationship with an old ass man who doesn’t know how to grow up and makes songs about dicks?”**

I chuckled, unable to disguise the fondness in my voice.  **“I don’t think you know what you’re signing up for Starman, but if you’re capable of waiting, I'm capable of working hard. Now if only I can convince my roommates to chill out.”**

**“Agreed.”**

**“Well, let me check to see where everyone’s at so I can figure out what i’m going to do with the rest of my evening. I’ll text you?”**

**“No prob. I’ll be here! Just let me know what the plan is. Also, if I fall asleep, give me a call until I wake up. I won’t mind.” ** I could hear him yawning through the phone. How long has he been awake? I immediately felt bad, contemplating letting him sleep longer and just bothering him tomorrow.  **“And if you don’t wake me I will literally fight you. And girl I am not above hair pulling.” ** I laughed, agreeing profusely to wake him up if anything changed.

Hanging up the phone, I stood from my bed and walked towards my door, brushing past my guitars and stroking them absently as I patted down my hair in the mirror. Was I procrastinating? Yes, yes I was.  _ Laura’s vehement distaste towards confrontation strikes again. I still can’t believe Jared lost his shit like that. And he wonders why I never want to tell him anything. Okay, I get that I have a bad history but he always said the worst part was I didn’t tell him anything. Okay. I can’t make my hair look any nicer. _

Grabbing my cellphone I started checking messages. Seeing Arin checking in on me was sweet. Sending a quick hello, I opened my door and stepped into the hall.  _ This is gonna suuuck. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys, sorry for the break again. I uh, I have no legitimate excuses other than school and stress I guess. I just wanted to warn you that I am about to rock Laura's world and not in the good way so please bear with me. Thank you for your patience and here's to another chapter dump before I disappear for who knows how long!


	31. Chapter 31

I knew the roomies were home because the TV was on downstairs. The volume turned low out of respect for my nap a testament to Serena not leaving the house. I walked downstairs quietly, trying not to disturb the dog pile I knew was happening on them sofa.

“Hey Laura, did you have a nice nap?” Serena asked quietly. She sat on the couch with a bowl of popcorn in her lap. The puppies doing their best to plead pieces from her hands with no success. “We tried to keep it down so you could rest.”

“Thanks. I was super tired. The nap really helped.” I looked around for Jared. “Where’s Jared? Shower?” I asked.

“Shower. He went in there about 20 minutes ago. We probably have an hour before we see him again.” Serena replied. I had to say I was surprised. If he was going upstairs unsupervised, I expected him to wake me up with more questions about my sanity. I internalized it though, walking the rest of the way downstairs and plopping down onto the couch, settling under one of the many blankets. Serena reached over and turned down the volume.

“So.” She began.

“So?” I responded, remaining calm. This was new territory for me. Being upfront about feelings and whatnot.

“This guy, tell me about him. Girl talk. What’s he like?” And now I was uncomfortable.

“You don’t want to know about this whole moving to another state thing?” I asked dubiously. My skepticism apparent on my face.

“We have two years to deal with that. I wanna know about this dude who’s caught your eye.” She finished with wiggling eyebrows. “We never talk about boys, you wanna get some coffee or tea before we start?”

“No no, it’s fine. What do you want to know?” I responded, settling back for one of the most awkward talks I'll probably ever have.

“Well I already know how you two met, but how’d you end up catching feelings?”

I sat back, thinking about everything that happened. “Honestly, I think everyone starts catching feelings for their favorite bands right? I think I started wanting to get to know him after listening to Danny Don’t You Know.”

“That's the song you were obsessed with for a while, right?” Serena asked.

“Yeah, that’s how I really got in to Ninja Sex Party. I just wanted to meet the person who chose to sing about dicks, and sex, and following your dreams even if you’re way older and would normally be focusing on like...nine to five jobs or something. No offense.” I threw in, glancing in her direction. I wasn’t trying to call her old, she was only five years older than me, but she did work a 9 - 5 job so...partial shade.

“No worries!” She waved dismissively, finally throwing two pieces of popcorn down onto the ground. “Okay so you developed a fangirl crush that’s normal.”

“Right,” I began again, “And everything was normal for the most part. I watched all of their videos, I looked at buying their merch but hashtag poor person problems, I wanted their CDs and counted down the days until new songs or videos dropped. I started watching their video game channel and monitoring their social media feed. I was straight up obsessed but like, closet obsessed you know? Victoria and you guys knew about it but not how involved I was I guess.”

I sighed and leaned back into the couch, petting the cat who was perched above me so she wouldn’t try to bite a chunk out of my fluff in retaliation for her personal space being encroached upon. “Then they announced some random raffle thing that I did because it was free and I was already subscribed to everything. And I mean, I have shitty luck, we knew this but somehow I was chosen to fly out there and meet all of them and it was just...super surreal you know? This once in a lifetime opportunity just fell into my lap and there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to go.” I looked over to see her staring at my face with a contemplative look on hers. “What? You thought I went off adventuring just to spite you two?”

She shook her head dismissively. ”No, I didn’t I just didn’t really get to ask you about your mindset when you decided to accept the invitation. Keep going!”

I eyed her while pulling strands of cat hair off my body. “Okaaay so I get there and I meet everyone and we’re all talking and this literal tall ass fuckin bean pole just walks out of nowhere all arms and legs and fuckin...my god his hair is worse than mine Serena.” My eyes were wide with exasperation to the point that she laughed at me. She understood the hair struggle.

“And this fucker just took it upon himself to be my personal tour guide, and we ate a shit ton of candy together-” That earned an eye roll. “- And talked about music and friends and clothes and video games and how he was fucking terrible but insisted on trying to beat me at whatever he got his hands on.”

“All of this in one week?”

“Well, yeah. When your job consists of playing video games for a living, doing it in your spare time isn’t that hard. Anyways,” I carried on, getting into my story and smiling softly. “One day we were supposed to go to a pajama party and he drove me after I relapsed a little bit.” Serena flinched and looked at me with a concerned expression. I ignored it out of pride. I didn’t want her pity. “And we just kinda agreed that day was not an interaction day so we just got pizza and played video games and had a great time and I realized that the little ouchie feeling I got in my tummy every time he sat close or, hugged me, or praised me, or pat my head wasn’t my lactose intolerance picking up.”

I sniffled and wrapped my arms around myself, annoyed that every time I got worked up I started crying. “And at first I was really scared because of the Jeremiah incident and my super shitty luck with boys and I want to hide but he wouldn’t let me and-” I kept babbling as all my stress started pouring out in waves of grammatically incorrect word vomit. “So I just left and told everyone I needed time to think on it. And I get home and I see these beautiful guitars on my bed and I realized that, I found more people in my shitty fucked up life that actually wanted to see me thrive and be successful.” I sniffled, wiping my eyes and looking up at Serena who had an unreadable look on her face.

“I realized that the possibility of me fucking up with L-Danny was holding me back from doing something that I loved on top of doing something that would help me get further along in life. And I think that even if L- _ Danny _ wanted to stay as my friend just like everyone else down there, I’d still want to go.”

“And what did Danny say when you told him that? Because I’m assuming you did.” Serena questioned while patting me on the head. Her method of calming me down.

“He said that if the only way I was truly happy and comfortable was him backing off or waiting for two years before I came down there then he’d do it. And no I don’t trust him yet but that’s why I said I wanted to wait. You weren’t wrong when you said two years was plenty of time to change my mind. I was just so...insulted by what Jared said that I didn’t want to talk about it at the time.”

“I’m really sorry about that by the way.” Serena threw in.

“Thanks but I don’t want you to apologize on his behalf. If he can’t do it himself, it won’t count. I would never talk to him that way. If he can’t respect me enough to have a civil conversation then there’s nothing to say.” She could tell I was still bitter about it, and it made her look down in her lap with furrowed brows.

“Jared.” She said. It was more of a demand than her calling him. “Come out now.”

I sighed. Figuring he was hiding somewhere to listen in without me knowing. I just hadn’t really cared. I looked up to see him shuffling out the bedroom wearing the same shorts and hoodie from before my nap.

“So much for the shower.” I quipped looking at Serena with a deadpan look on my face. She ignored me in favor of staring at her boyfriend who had the common sense to look down and away in what I had hoped was shame.

“Jared. You really crossed the line earlier. And I want you to apologize. For everything.”

He sighed before looking at me while flopping on his side of the couch. “I’m sorry I said some out of line shit earlier. Can we watch tv now?” He asked, trying to change the subject.

“I said everything Jared. All three years of it.” We both looked at her in surprise. She looked at us unamusedly. “What, you think I don’t know what you guys get up to when I’m not here?”

“What am I supposed to apologize for now?” He asked warily, clearly uncomfortable with how observant she was being. I was also uncomfortable and chose to remain silent. I didn’t know how much she knew, or her thoughts on the matter.

“How about the verbal abuse? The super controlling attitude? The fact that our roommate doesn’t even feel comfortable enough in the home she legally pays for to want to hang around us anymore? I know when you’re joking and when you’re trying to hurt feelings Jared. I know every time you two have an argument. I can hear the sobs from her room and she doesn’t even ask to go out anymore. And quite frankly she shouldn’t have to. And I know I’m not the one behind it, and her parents aren’t in her life so it could only be one person.”

Jared bristled, his annoyance becoming more apparent as she continued to speak. “You don’t know what she’s done.” He said, looking at me with accusatory eyes, trying to shift the blame. “She’s not some perfect little doll Serena. You don’t know what I’ve had to do to keep us good, out of the trouble she’s caused for us.”

Serena shifted back, staring at both of us while I prayed to whatever deity who hated me to strike me down where I sat. “So tell me. Everything.” And she waited.


	32. Chapter 32

“I shouldn’t need to tell you anything. You tell her Laura. This is your shit show in the first place.” I flinched at the accusatory tone. I looked to Serena before beginning, this was her confrontation and while it wasn’t nearly as intense, I still didn’t know how to proceed. I really wished Leigh was there.

“I don’t want. Her to tell me. I want you to tell me what was so terrible that it justified you ‘adopting’ an adult as your daughter and holding her under your thumb without thinking I'd notice!” Serena slightly raised her voice. Turning to fully face Jared and effectively blocking me from taking part in the conversation. “I’m sure she can add in any details you may have forgotten.”

I didn’t like anything about this to be honest. I wanted to go back to my room and sleep but I figured running away would add further fuel to the fire. I could feel Jared’s eyes burning into my head above Serena’s shoulders and I tried to meet his gaze, focusing more on this being a cathartic thing than an intervention. All Serena wanted was an explanation and an apology. I should be able to last through that.

  
  


“Jared...what is actually wrong with you.” The phrase was more of a statement than a question. Serena had grown more agitated as Jared continued with his justification. 

“What’s wrong with me?! What’s wrong with  _ you _ ? All of that shit and I’m at fault?!” Jared was pacing around, pausing intermittently to point at me with accusation. “She’s talked shit behind our backs for who knows how long, snuck around lying about where she’s at...no wonder she can’t finish and get her fucking degree she’t too busy sneaking around! She can’t be trusted!”

“ _ She’s not your goddamn girlfriend! I am! _ ” Serena stressed. Practically shouting, her face was red and I could tell she was trying not to cry. I wanted to reach out and comfort her but...I was busy blaming myself for the confrontation in the first place. “She doesn’t owe you  _ anything _ and you have no business expecting it from her! She is her own person and we have all discussed on several occasions what would happen if she didn’t complete her degree in time. No wonder she has panic attacks whenever she messed something up, telling you is the equivalent of telling her parents!”

Serena turned to face me. “Has he been sleeping with you outside of all three of us?” She asked. I hesitated, and that was all the answer she needed. I could see the rage in her eyes. “I see. I think...I think I’m disappointed in both of you in that regard.” I flinched at her tone. “Jared I  _ told _ you. I  _ told you _ that the only way I was okay with this happening is if you left her alone unless you asked me.”

“And_ you,_” She began, turning back to me, “I told you to talk to me, that I was here for you. Why?”

I started tearing up, stressed beyond belief and trying to ignore Jared slamming doors as he continued to pace around. “I-I didn’t know how to tell him I didn’t want to do it anymore. I-”

“That’s because every time you said no, it was because you were fucking around with some guy!” Jared interrupted. “Every time I looked at your phone you were doing something sneaky and hiding shit.”

“ _ She is not your girlfriend! _ ” Serena said again, emphasizing the whole statement. “So what if she was talking to someone else, and so was if that person was the reason why she didn’t want to sleep anymore. Jared, you pressured her into sex because you wanted it and made her feel like she couldn’t say no. That’s...that’s abuse. You abused our roommate who literally left her parents to be her own person. How...why-” Serena was at a loss. The full extent of what had happened hit her, and she didn’t know how he couldn’t understand that.

I wanted to vomit. I wanted to vomit and die and sleep. Vomit and die and sleep and cry and not necessarily in that order.

“I think...I think you need to leave for a little bit.” Serena said quietly. I looked up to see she was talking to me. My heart broke and I immediately started sobbing. Serena jolted and rushed forwards to hug me. “No no listen. I meant I think we all need a break from each other and maybe you should stay at the hotel for a couple days. I’m not kicking you out permanently honey. You’re okay. Jared and I need to have a conversation as boyfriend and girlfriend.” She finished with finality, glaring up at Jared who was standing in the kitchen biting his nails. I could see he wanted to speak up but wisely stayed silent. His thumb had already started bleeding.

“I-I’m sorry Serena.” I whimpered before standing up to grab everything I needed. I kept my head down as a trudged upstairs. Glad that I hadn’t fully unpacked my bag from my trip, I threw in some minor changes of clothes and what I would need for work and walked back down, grabbing the signed bass guitar and its case from the corner of my room. Whatever conversation my two roommates were having died instantly as I walked over to get my keys.

“I’ll let you know when everything is good, okay? And don’t worry about rent or anything. Put it towards the room. Your GM should be okay with it right?” Serena asked, keeping a gentle tone as she pretended Jared didn’t exist for a moment.

I nodded, despondent and headed towards the front door.


	33. Chapter 33

I sighed as I flopped down on the hotel room bed, staring up at the ceiling, I tried to push down the growing guilt, fear, and anxiety. I really didn’t feel like crying any more. Not today at least. Rolling over I grabbed my phone to text Leigh.

**Hey Starman**

**Hey Bunny how’s it goin? **

**I wanted to know if you were still down for dinner**

**Sure**

**When?**

**Like...now?**

**Want me to pick you up? I’m at work right now so it shouldn’t take me super long.**

**I’m already there**

**What do you mean you’re already there I just agreed to dinner**

**No I mean like**

**I’m staying at your hotel**

**I’m on the fourth floor**

**Surprise?**

I sat up quickly, throwing on my socks and heading out to the lobby. Walking behind the desk, because I worked there and I had that power, I checked who was currently staying with us before pulling out my phone again.

**Holy shit**

**You aren’t lying**

**Why would I lie?**

**Are you mad?**

**:O**

I laughed at the emoji. Ashamed that he refused to use actual emojis and make faces out of letters and symbols instead. By now I was on the fourth floor, standing outside his door. I reached up and knocked.

**Hold on there’s someone at the door.**

Leigh answered and squawked in surprise. “Bunny! Hey!”

I wanted to say I had some kind of witty banter prepared for when he answered the door. And in hindsight I probably did. But as soon as I saw his face all my humor died and everything I pushed down swept me up in a wave. Suddenly I was drowning again. I immediately burst out crying and launched myself into his arms.

  
  


It took awhile before Leigh could successfully get the whole of the conversation out of me. There were a lot of pauses and blubbering on my part. And several instances of escorting me to the bathroom so I could throw up from how hard I was sobbing. Eventually my tears died down, and I wound up laying face-down on Leigh’s bed.

“Bunny, I’m pretty sure Serena didn’t kick you out because she hated you baby.” Leigh sighed, petting my hair to try and comfort me. He sat stretched out by my side as he typed on his phone. I knew he was probably texting Arin to keep him updated. He told me how everyone was worried since I hadn’t really responded to anyone in a while.

I mumbled into the pillow, to exhausted to move my head. “No baby, “ Leigh answered. “She might have been upset before, but there’s no way she could blame you for what...he...did.” He finished, and I could feel his hand tighten in my hair. “I’m so proud of you for being able to deal with all of that. I’m pretty sure I would have just shut down until it was over. I didn’t really realize the extent of what was going on, and I’m sorry about that.” I could tell he genuinely felt guilty and I lifted my arm to pat his leg lazily. We sat there in silence for a little while, content without having to say anything.

My stomach growled aggressively and after a beat, Leigh laughed at my refusal to admit that I was hungry.

“You uh, ready to get some food? I’m craving pasta.” I mumbled into my pillow and he shook his head before poking me in the side. “No dude, I am not suggesting your favorite food group in an attempt to get you to get up. I really just want some carbs.” He scooted off the bed and grabbed his jacket before slipping on his shoes. “Did you need anything from your room?” He asked when I finally rolled over and sat up.

“Yeah, I don’t have my shoes or wallet or anything. You cool with Olive Garden?” I answered, my voice rugged from crying. I tried not to think about how red my nose was, or how puffy my eyes looked. “We can head down to my room to grab my shit and head out.”

“Wow inviting me to your room already? At least take me to dinner first!” He joked, as we walked out the door. His lanky body allowed him to dodge out of the way when I took a swipe at him with my leg.

  
“Shut up Leigh!” I chuckled before leading the way to the elevator.


	34. Chapter 34

“I am so stuffed holy shit.” I groaned from my spot on the bed. We finally made it back to the hotel and were lounging in Leigh’s room. His bed was bigger.

“Well yea you ate like, fuckin, four bowls of soup and all the salad and like...six breadsticks. Where does it all go?!” He exclaimed exasperated from his spot on the floor. He leaned up and poked me in the side. “Why am I on the floor again?” He asked before lurching up and tottering to the bathroom.

“I dont know!” I laughed, rolling over to kick off my shoes. “What I do know is I may need a nap. Is that okay? Just for like…an hour.” I asked.

Leigh peaked his head around the bathroom door. “Sure dude, i’m gonna take a shower though if that’s ok. I can still smell the airplane on me.” He visibly shuddered and continued putting his massive curls into some semblance of a ponytail.

“See, I don’t know what that smells like so...I’ll take your word for it. Enjoy your shower, yell if you need anything!” I called before beginning to fold the covers down and climbing in. I tried to get comfortable for a good two minutes before I gave up. Skinny jeans and covers just didn’t work. I stood up and wriggled out of them, kicking them on top of my shoes before climbing back into the bed. Leigh wouldn’t mind. I was wearing a long shirt and my single pair of boxers that I save for extra comfy days and travel anyways. Nowhere near sexy. I snickered sleepily at the thought before drifting off.

I didn’t hear the shower cut off or the door open. I didn’t see Leigh walk out and raise his eyebrow at the discarded pants in the corner. I also didn’t hear him chuckle at the vague lump that was me burrowed under the covers and curled up on one side of the bed.

I may have grumbled as the bed dipped behind me, but it was subconscious as my mind drifted further into a dead sleep. Where no drama could reach and I was left at peace with the silence of my mind.

* * *

I woke up to an arm around my waist and someone pressed up behind me. Which while it wasn’t uncomfortable, still caught me off guard. Then again, it wasn’t the body so much as what was definitely a boner digging into my ass. I held perfectly still to see if my bed mate was awake, nope. Nada. I huffed in fondness before stretching out and groaning quietly at several joints popping.

“Wow, and I thought I was the oldest person in this relationship.” I heard behind me. Rolling over and looking up I saw two sleepy brown eyes staring at me through a mess of wild curls. “Is your arthritis okay?” He asked quietly in a teasing voice. The roughness of sleep sending tingles through my stomach. _ Goddamn does he make sleep deprivation look good _ . 

I flinched at the poke on my forehead. “Ow? What was that for?” I hissed, reaching up to rub the abused area.

“You were staring and didn’t say anything after I asked you a question Bunny. Figured that warranted a head poke.” He continued, still refusing to speak louder than a whisper or move from his spot. “Have you come back to planet earth?”

I grumbled at him before answering. “Yeah, and I am not the oldest! I’m a millennial, we were born with glass bones and rusty joints.” I joked, snuggling down further in the blanket and effectively hiding my face. Leigh simply slouched down further on his side to join me under the comforter, and something about the makeshift blanket fort made the act more intimate. I hoped it was dark enough to hide the blush on my face.

I felt Leigh’s hand reach up to pet my fluff before he reached over and turned me back around. “More cuddles.” He demanded and I laughed at the pout in his voice. “Don’t laugh, you’re warm and squishy!”

I gasped in mock offense. “Squishy! Are you calling me fat?!” I exclaimed, still quietly but with humor and I wriggled around.

“No ma’am I’m calling you curvy.” He rumbled. And I could feel every word reverberate through my rib cage from how closely he pulled us together. “It’s comfortable. I like it.” Feeling confident I ground backwards against his lap, tangling our legs together so he couldn’t escape, and I felt more than heard his hiss against the back of my neck. “Bunny, I already know you’re not wearing pants you don’t have to remind me.”

I smiled even though he couldn’t see it and continued moving backwards. “I don’t know Daddy,” I began, feeling his hands tighten around my waist at the nickname and pull me closer, “I feel like you need a reminder.” I sighed in contentment at the restrained groan I pulled from his throat as I continued my ministrations. Allowing him to start grinding into me from behind, I reached up with my arm to tug at his hair. It sounds like an acrobatic act but his hair was everywhere so I didn’t have to look that hard for a handful to latch on to.

“Bunny, Baby Girl, you’re going to kill me. I’m going to die.” He hissed into the back of my neck, and I shivered at the sensation. Even with his complaints he continued to move against me, letting his hands roam across my thighs and waist. “What kind of underwear are these anyway?” He asked distractedly until he reached the front. “Are-are these boxer briefs? As in, boys underwear?”

“Yes? Don’t judge me they’re comfortable. I have thick thighs.” I huffed, trying not to laugh as he traced along the band. Stuttering a little as he toyed with the pocket in the front. “Besides, you know you like them.” 

“Oh I do, “ He purred as he continued to play with me, dancing around my center and he pulled me even closer to his chest. “Trust me, I like them a lot.” His hands dipped down into my waistband to swipe at my clit and I arched against him, gasping in pleasure as he continued to move against me. “But I gotta say,” he continued, pulling his hand back out and patting my thigh, “I think it’s about time to take these off huh?” 

I growled at him before shimmying out from under the covers.

“Tease.” Leigh laughs at the comment before pushing himself up.


	35. Chapter 35

Mindful of his tendency to overheat, I turned the air down before wiggling out of my now damp briefs. I turned to look at Leigh, just in time to catch the downright predatory look on his face as he stared at me from his place in the bed. I flushed at the attention, especially after I noticed the tent in the sheet from his erection.

“Is that your phone,” I began, “or are you just happy to see me?” I couldn't help but laugh at the blush that bloomed on Leigh’s face after he looked down at his lap. Taking advantage of his embarrassment, I crawled back onto the bed before settling on top of him. Straddling his waist I fell forwards until his chest was flush against mine, effectively turning into a human shaped blanket.

“I don’t remember ordering a Bunny blanket off of Amazon ma’am.” Leigh huffed out, running his hands up and down my back. It would be really soothing if it wasn’t for his erection that kept twitching against my core through the blanket. “You sure you don’t wanna climb under here Baby? It’s a lot warmer.” His hands started digging into the muscles on my back and I groaned at the increased pressure. “Then again maybe you should stay up there and let me work some of these knots out of your back. Geez, you’re worse than Arin.”

I glanced up at him, pausing in the pleasured whines to ask: “You mean Arin’s laid on top of you while you massage his back before?” I smiled at the thought. Such good friends.

Leigh hesitated before answering. “...among other things? Usually I’m on top of him though.”  _ Okay? More than friends then.  _ “I’m  _ joking _ Laura.” Leigh finished quickly. “We’re close but not  _ that  _ close.”

“I mean, either way is fine. If you like dudes and dudettes that’s up to you. Welcome to the team I guess.” I admonished, settling down further and allowing Leigh to keep working his magic.

“Wait you’re Bi?” Leigh asked, curiosity lacing his tone. “I guess I can see that.” I didn’t really talk about it much since I was too busy to be in relationships in the first place. With school, and work, and more work, and Jared and Serena, all of my time was pretty much filled. I didn’t stop me from being a hopeless flirt though. Mostly with the women I spoke to at my jobs. V and I had already accepted that if neither of us were married by the time we were 30 we’d simply marry each other. It got to the point that people just assumed I was lesbian. “I’m straight though so, can’t say we’re on the same team after all. Gotta say though, it’s kind of hot.” Leigh added on, obviously joking about the last sentence. 

I hadn’t realized I was subconsciously grinding down onto Leigh until he grabbed my hips to hold me still before continuing his massage. I whined my displeasure until he dug his fingers into my lower back pulling a long, drawn out, guttural moan from my throat. “God baby, you sound so good above me like this.”

“ _ Daddy _ ” I moaned, trying unsuccessfully to create some kind of friction between us. “Daddy please I need-” I cut off, unable to find the words. Leigh continued to hold my waist in a tight grip. “Mmmfuuuck.” I gasped out. My arms gave up until I dropped my full weight onto him. Finally, after burying his face in my neck, Leigh raised his hips to meet my own, both of us groaning at the feeling.

“ _ God _ Bunny you’re so  _ wet _ !” Leigh gasped into my neck and I shuddered at the feeling. He leaned back to look me in the eyes, pleasure and lust turning his cheeks a bright shade of pink. “Laura, can I-” he began, using my full name to get my attention. He looked down between us meaningfully, making sure to hold still to show he could back off at any time.

“You mean you wanna...do the doodling with me?” I asked slyly, wiggling my hips around and eliciting an urgent hiss from my prey. “Daddy, you have to use your words or this,” I paused to move again, “isn’t going to go anywhere.” I giggled as I watched Leigh roll his eyes.

“Doodling. Really? Of all things to call it, you picked doodling.”

“What? Would you rather canoodling, the flimflammery, the horizontal mambo, the sexy times? I can keep going if you want.” At this point Leigh was trying really hard not to die of laughter. I could feel his chest heaving with the effort under my body. Delicately, I leaned down to whisper in his ear, brushing his mane out of the way. “Daddy, do you wanna...do the hanky panky?” I moaned the last part and it sent him toppling over the edge.

In my opinion, there are three kinds of laughter: there’s gentle laughter that escapes when you don’t expect it, gently warming hearts and bringing people back to simpler times, there’s standard laughter that cramps tummies and hurts faces, the ones that are expected at the ends of punchlines and memes on the internet, and then there’s the third kind. The one that moves the whole body, the balance shifting, tear jerking, ugly laughter that can’t be controlled or maintained, the laughter that hits you like a freight train out of nowhere because honestly? No one was expecting hilarity in that situation. That laughter would leave a person worn out, 

That third kind of laughter? I thrived on it. Which is why I didn’t mind Leigh almost throwing me off the bed in a fit of raucous snorts that would no doubt earn us a noise complaint from the people next door. I was totally fine with patting him on the back as he accidentally choked on his own saliva, needing to sit up and take a sip of water before dissolving into cackles again. I had decided to pull out the red flush that crept down his chest and into the tips of his ears as often as possible because of the strange things it did to my stomach.

I wasn’t offended at the coughed out “Fuckin’...shit…” that was repeated every once in a while, and the “Dammit bunny!” that escaped whenever he saw the shit eating grin on my face gave me pride in my comedic abilities. I knew the moment was ruined but I was fine with that, slipping back under the covers as Leigh flopped backwards. Thoroughly worn out from the torture I put him through. For once, torture that wasn’t of the sexual kind.

We lay in silence for a little while as Leigh worked on getting his breathing under control. I counted out five minutes before speaking up: “So, did you die? Or…” I knew he wasn’t dead from his breathing, but I was bored, and way too awake for another nap.

“No i’m still here thankfully. It was touch and go for a second though I’ll admit.” He breathed from behind her.

“Cool, coolcoolcool.” I responded, disregarded the slight shade being thrown. “So...i’m bored.” 

Leigh rolled over to look at me, mock hurt in his eyes and a dramatic pout on his lips. “I’m sorry am I boring you Bunny? Was my giggles of death not enough for you?”  _ Why is he so attractive? It’s just not fair. This man is 40 years old and he looks like one of those awkward boy band singers. All dorky and timeless. I wish I knew him during his emo phase.  _ “Bunnyyyyyy you went off to another world again baby girl. You feeling okay?”

I blinked rapidly and refocused on his face. “Yeah! I was just wondering if you wanted to play around on these pretty, pretty, basses that are sitting in my room right now. I need the distraction. You in for a quick jam sesh?” I finished, trying out band lingo and ignoring how weird it felt on my tongue. Like verbal shoes that were too big for me to walk in.

Leigh chuckled before patting my head and sitting up. “I mean, I don’t think anyone calls it that anymore but, sure! Let’s go get them! After you put some panties back on. Daddy doesn’t need anyone else seeing all that but him.” I preened at the possessiveness in his tone. The compliment like a shot of adrenaline to my ego.

“Yes daddy!” I chirped, the fake innocence a show of confidence as I leaned over in front of him. “As long as you don’t make fun of me for how bad I am at this.”

“Trust me. As long as you don’t fuckin’...say jam sesh ever again, I will have nothing to judge you for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't write sex scenes to save my life. I swear i'm not a virgin i'm just lame. Thank you for the continued support, comments are my lifeblood, and once I get past this damned writer's block i'll get back to ruining Laura's life further. 
> 
> P.S. How do you guys feel about some short stories that take place throughout the random timeline of Leigh and Laura's relationship? Might help me come up with ideas for the main storyline. Let me know!


	36. Chapter 36

When I finally stopped messing around and annoying Leigh, he turned out to be a pretty patient teacher. I literally had no idea how to begin to hold a bass, let alone strum a chord. So before notes were learned came the stereotypical “let me stand behind you to teach you how to hold this object when I could stand in front of you and just verbally direct you” moment. And of course I called him out on it to which he pouted and proceeded to tickle me until I apologized for being mean.

“Man, am I glad that I chose to clip my nails a couple days ago.” I groaned as I slouched further in my arm chair. Leigh and I chose to take over the living space in the room he was given at the hotel for our jam sesh.  _ I may not be able to call it that out loud, but I can sure as hell call it a jam sesh in my mind. _ I smirked to myself at the small victory.

“Yeah, I really hate playing with a pick so I always tell people to just strum it out. Especially because we won’t be starting with fast grooves. Bass clef is nothing like treble darlin'. Thank goodness you know how to read music though or it would take way longer to get to actually playing music.” Leigh was also slouching, on the couch though, because there was more space for his forever long legs. He had the signed bass guitar in his lap was was toying with the strings idly. Without the amp the volume was muted with a high tinny that still sounded melodic.

We both basked in the silence, allowing the higher tones of the bass to act as background music to our own, personal thoughts. On the outside, it would look as though we were simply ignoring each other, an argument ending on a final note, or an awkward question left inconclusive. But in reality we were just comfortable doing our own thing.  _ It used to be like this with Jared _ .  _ _ I sighed at the wayward thought. I knew I needed to confront whatever bullshit it was that I had gone through earlier in the week but, for a few more moments I just wanted to drown myself in something, anything, other than the cluster fuck I knew was taking place at home.

I sat up suddenly in my chair. Thankful for the strap that held my bass to my torso, and ignoring the weight of it pulling at my neck. “Leigh.” I announced with admittedly more severity than required.

“Hm?” He tilted his head in my direction distractedly, obviously still lost in thought.

“Sing me a song.”

He did a double take. Now fully absorbing my face and how serious I was being, he adjusted once more, fixing his form while remaining in a lying position. “I mean, sure? What do you want to hear?”

I slid down to the ground and carefully leaned my bass against the chair, crawling over to sit on the floor next to his torso. I made myself comfortable with a blanket I stole from his bed and leaned my head back, making eye contact upside down. “I dunno, something you can sing and still play at the same time.” I relaxed my neck and closed my eyes, indicating that I was fine with whatever he chose and waited.

The first few notes of  _ Wish You Were Here _ were plucked out a few seconds later and I felt my muscles relax. The lack of amp made the song sound more acoustic, and genuine. Something one would play in private. A secret. A treasure. I breathed a sigh of relief and focused on Leigh as he started singing.

_ So _

_ So you think you can tell _

_ Heaven from Hell _

_ Blue skies from pain _

_ Can you tell a green field _

_ From a cold steel rail _

_ A smile from a veil _

_ Do you think you can tell _

_ And did they get you to trade _

_ Your heroes for ghosts _

_ Hot ashes for trees _

_ Hot air for a cool breeze _

_ Cold comfort for change _

_ Did you exchange  _

_ A walk on part in the war _

_ For a lead role in a cage _

I thought back to the music video for this song, the deeper more serious Leigh. The time when Danny Sexbang took a step back and Leigh took over. When the persona took a break and he was allowed to be himself. No spandex and capes, just jeans, a leather jacket, and admittedly, less grey hair. I silently chuckled at the thought. With music like this I liked to just let melodies wash over me. Forget the trauma and the chaos, just put myself in that moment and breathe. I took a deep breath, and washed myself away.

_ How I wish _

_ How I wish you were here _

_ We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl _

_ Year after year _

_ Running over the same old ground _

_ And how we found _

_ The same old fear _

_ Wish you were here _

I joined Leigh in the last verses of the song. Smiling peacefully with my eyes closed I pretended that this was my life. Every day, sitting on the couch, no worries or expectations, just the high tinny of a bass guitar and a mind empty of thoughts. A life of music and ignorance, letting melodies and rhythms tell me how to feel and what to say. A calm life, an easier one, where I didn’t have to fight my mind to put it to sleep at night, and I could wake up not worrying about what was due or owed or worth struggling for. I craved that lifestyle, that, calming, soothing energy like a drowned man for air. But much like the fading notes as the solos ended and the curtains closed, the spell was broken and I was back on the floor of a hotel room with my something maybe boyfriend, waiting out what little time I have left before I needed to go back to work.

I sighed before standing up, throwing the blanket on the back of a chair before turning to face Leigh. “That was beautiful Leigh. Thank you.” I smiled serenely down at him before pecking him on the forehead and reaching for my backpack on the ground. “I have about two hours before I have to go to work though. I’m going to work on some homework until then okay?” 

Without giving him a chance to respond, I grabbed my shoes, phone, and bag, and left to go back to my room.

Playtime was over.

End of Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOh my goddd guys this is it! The end of Part I of Workaholic! Holy shiiiiiiit. I wasn't sure how I was going to end this but I am glad with how it turned out. We have some actual plot happening again! How could Laura leave like this!? Who knows! Stay tuned for the next episode of Dragon Ball- wait no wrong series. Leave comments, leave hearts, but please don't leave me hangin'! Until next time, Varjackson OUT!


	37. Afterward

Babies, darlings, sweetie pies and whatnot, i'm just posting to let y'all know that part II is officially up! I still don't know how everything works on AO3 but, let me know what y'all think! It's still going to be in Laura's point of view and don't worry, I have plans already laid out for everyone, be patient, supportive, and please. Keep feeding my ego I LOVE it! See you in the next part darlings! Varjackson OUT!


End file.
